He joins the likes of Nelson Mandela, Mother Theresa and Jacques Cousteau on the list of foreigners to be given the honour. Esteemed company indeed.

Congratulations to him, but I've got to say: I'm as surprised as he was and I just don't get it. This isn't an attack on John Key or the Nats, I just don't understand the rationale.

Yes, we've always considered Australia to be our bessie mates, but that relationship seems to have been rather strained over the past few years so it seems an odd time to bestowing honours on the basis of fostering better relations.

Remember under John Key's watch Australia starting sending New Zealanders who'd lived in Australia for decades off to immigration detention centres, and then packing them back off to New Zealand in some cases when they were only suspected of a crime. John Key made no ground in getting Kiwis the same rights in Australia and Australians receive in New Zealand,  and just recently they wound back any special treatment Kiwis did get there by charging them international fees to go to University.

I can't help but wonder whether this honour has little to do with our country's special relationship .. and more to do with the special relationship between John Key and Malcolm Turnbull. Can you honestly tell me that he'd be receiving this honour from an Australian Prime Minister of a different flavour?

Perhaps I'm being unfair - I mean, it's not all ocean explorers and near saints on that list - there are other New Zealanders even, Dame Kiri Te Kanawa, Sir Geoffery Palmer, who was briefly Prime Minister and former deputy Prime Minister Sir Brian Talboys have also been honoured in years gone by.

But the thing I notice about that list is that they've already been honoured - they already have titles and I struggle - and this probably gets to the heart of why this doesn't sit right with me - I struggle with the idea that you should be honoured just for doing your job. I feel the same way about businessmen, unless they've changed the game,  and the same way about sportsmen unless they've really gone above and beyond - because there are plenty of accolades and financial rewards for doing those things already.

John Key is already Sir John here by virtue of being PM for eight years and I wasn't so sure about that, although it was consistent with what has been offered to pretty much every former Prime Minister. Now it's an international award for fostering better relations with Australia, when fostering better relations with any neighbour and major trading partner would surely be on the list of KPIs for any leader of any country.

So enjoy your day Sir John, I can't work out what it is you've done to earn it, but enjoy it all the same.