Photo: RNZ / Samuel Rillstone
Analysis: For a man who claims little regard for the polls, Winston Peters will surely be feeling more favourably toward their latest offerings.
For the second time in a matter of days, New Zealand First has been delivered a blinder.
The RNZ-Reid Research result - out Tuesday - puts the party in the number three spot and on the cusp of double-digits, its highest score in the series since July 2017.
And more fortune: the lift is also reflected in its leader's personal standing.
Peters now attracts 12.6 percent support as preferred prime minister, putting him within seven points of Prime Minister Christopher Luxon.
The solid showing follows a similarly eye-catching Taxpayers' Union-Curia poll last week, which had NZ First on a staggering 12 percent.
Everything seems to be coming up Winston Peters.
More remarkable, the surge is coming despite - or perhaps because of - a general backdrop of pessimism and disenchantment.
While sentiment has nudged up since the gloomy lows of September, it remains entrenched in negative territory.
Only 36.3 percen
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