National Party leader Christopher Luxon was greeted by lei-wearing AM hosts on Wednesday morning as he faces questions over why his social media accounts suggested he was in New Zealand last week, when really he was holidaying in Hawaii.
AM hosts Ryan Bridge, Melissa Chan-Green and Bernadine Oliver-Kerby wore leis for Luxon's interview on Wednesday. Chan-Green welcomed him to the show with, "Aloha Christopher".
"Aloha," Luxon replied. "I love the leis, they look great."
Luxon came under fire on Tuesday after revealing he had been in Honolulu last week, while videos and pictures on his social media accounts implied he was meeting with businesses in Te Puke. He later admitted a mistake had been made and the posts should have been captioned differently.
The National leader reiterated that on AM.
"We should have posted it much sooner, we should have actually captioned the post to say it was in recent days, not implying it was on the day," he said.
"I shot the video when I was in Te Puke, before I left for holiday, but we own that one."
Chan-Green asked where Luxon was speaking to AM from.
"I am definitely in the Beehive theatrette, I am definitely in Wellington today, and back into the reality of life of New Zealand. We have some big things to focus on. We have got the cost of living rising, we have got school education attendance being a major problem, we have got a health crisis and a health system falling apart."
He said he was "back into the real issues now" and "off the beach from Hawaii."
Luxon said he tried to take a break from social media while on holiday and take time out after an intense start to the year.
