“It was quite a present when I think about it,” says Peters.
Another favourite last year was not from a political counterpart, but from the grandson of Sir Edmund Hillary, Alexander Hillary, when Peters in May made the first visit by a New Zealand Foreign Minister to Nepal.
It was a $5 New Zealand note that features a drawing of Sir Ed and it was signed by the legendary mountaineer.
It coincided with the anniversary of Hillary and Tenzing Norgay’s ascent of Mt Everest in 1953, and Peters was choppered up to visit Khumiung School and Khunde Hospital, which Sir Edmund helped to set up.
Foreign Minister Winston Peters with Alexander Hillary during a visit to Nepal. Photo / Ministry of Foreign Affairs
He was met there by the young Hillary, who is the general manager of the Himalayan Trust. Peters announced a $1.8 million partnership with the trust for education in the Solukhumbu district over five years.
Peters points out that strictly speaking, it is illegal to write on New Zealand notes – but that only adds its historic value, and it also sits in pride of place in a glass frame behind his desk.
“I thought, ‘this is pretty special’.”
The $5 note signed by Sir Edmund Hillary and given to Winston Peters by Hillary’s grandson, Alexander. Photo / Mark Mitchell
But increasingly, the gifts Peters is receiving have a horse theme, or in the case of his visit to Mongolia in February, an actual horse, which he was taken to see.
“They’re tough. You take one look at that horse, you know, it’s tough as nails,” he said.
Peters was also given naming rights and called it Stamina, although it remains in Mongolia.
It may be a subtle reference to his own political career, but also because Mongolian horses are famed for their endurance. Horse racing in Mongolia is quite different to elsewhere in the world.
The longest horse race in the world, the Mongol Derby, is held over 10 days across a 1000km course in the Mongolian steppe and they race 35km at a time.
“I could bring it home, but it’d be coming out of a freezing desert to a warm north and it just wouldn’t look right.
“It wouldn’t be good for the horse.”
Winston Peters meets his horse, Stamina, on a visit to Mongolia. Photo / MFAT
Peters has a photo of Stamina and has been promised annual reports about its progress. It stays with a breeder with about 600 other horses.
Peters has long been a horse lover and once took two Kaimanawa horses and named them Rodney and Richard after the former Act leaders. He is also the Racing Minister.
But Peters believes the main source of the horse-themed gifts is his election advertisement in 2023, showing him sitting on a horse in a cowboy hat, saying, “To govern a country, you need experience, and this is not our first rodeo”, then riding off.
It was filmed in one day at Pukekohe on a borrowed horse in a borrowed hat that was so big it had to be taped to his head.
“But that was my original line, though,” he says.
Winston Peters in the 2023 advertisement.
Peters says the ad went global and he has had quite a few compliments about it.
“I’ve had the Foreign Minister of India tell me that, the Prime Minister of Thailand tell me that, and a few of them actually dropped me a line saying ’fantastic’.
“Well, you’ve got to do something different, right?”
Another of his horse gifts came from Saudi Arabia during a visit there in February, on the same trip as his visit to Mongolia.
The Miami Dolphins ball given to Winston Peters by Marco Rubio. Photo / Mark Mitchell
Officials arranged for Peters to attend the $20 million 2025 Saudi Cup in Riyadh – one of the world’s richest horse race meetings in which acclaimed New Zealand jockey James McDonald was riding (he was second on Romantic Warrior).
Peters also attended Joseph Parker’s world heavyweight IBF title challenge against Briton Daniel Dubois (Dubois withdrew and Parker knocked out Martin Bakole).
“We saw a chance for those brief days to get inside the minds of the Saudi Arabian government, and it would work like a charm,” says Peters.
He got to interact with the top levels of government because they were at the races or at the boxing.
“So you cut to the chase, not a huge long meeting and bilaterals and pull-asides. You’re sitting there for two or three hours with the guy. “
The Saudis gave Peters a shiny horse statue in a special case. He also has one from China and one from Mexico, among the nine horse gifts in the past two years.
The statue given to Winston Peters by the Saudi Arabian government after he attended the Saudi Cup in Riyadh. Photo / Mark Mitchell
They are not gifts that Peters keeps and before they make it to the shelf in his office, their details are formally recorded.
“I usually have a function where I give them out to a lot of people, my staff and others.”
Outside the square
So what does Peters give in return? It seems the nation does not have a record of generosity when it comes to gift-giving.
“New Zealand in that respect has been awfully parsimonious to the extent of being embarrassing,” he says.
What he likes to do when he can is to take decent-sized pots of manuka honey, “the best manuka honey in the world and I take serious presents like that”.
“You’d be astonished how many people think that’s fantastic.”
It was particularly in Asia, India and the Middle East, he says, adding the fact that high-quality edible honey was found in the pyramids after thousands of years.
“So they get it.”
Peters said he also likes to think outside the square when giving gifts.
“It’s also been my view that sometimes, forget about the man you’re meeting, he’s got a wife. Maybe she’d like some decent greenstone earrings.
“She’ll never get that unless somebody else thinks about that, and you’d be astonished how thinking outside the square gets you the impression you’re trying to create.”
Speaking of impressions, Peters has one gripe about New Zealand: he believes the lack of a decent reception area for foreign VIPs at Auckland reflects badly on the country.
They would have been to Third World countries with a better reception area than New Zealand, he says.
“It’s just plain short-sightedness…it’s not an arrogance thing, it is not a pride thing, it is just plain common sense.
“You don’t get a second chance to make a first impression.”