Coalition talks are headed for Auckland this weekend after all three parties spent the week trying to nut out a deal in Wellington.
There's still no tryline in sight, although ACT leader David Seymour says if negotiations were a rugby game, they'd be well into the second half.
Seymour's been burning the midnight oil.
"Well we worked late last night and got started as early as we can today," he told Newshub on Friday morning.
He was in an upbeat mood despite being spotted pacing up and down Hill St looking flustered on Thursday night.
"Oh I'll tell you what that was. We were trying to get Uber Eats and we couldn't find the car."
Hangry then, hungry now to iron out differences with his foe-turned-friend Winston Peters who wasn't having a bar of the media on Friday.
Instead, his MPs were giving some hints.
"We're down to brass tacks I think," said Mark Patterson.
But he took it back immediately.
Asked if that meant we're close to a deal, he said: "I don't think that's what we said, no."
Peters' 2IC Shane Jones got poetic over a Jellytip.
"Red for the departing regime and brown for my relations in the Māori Party who I'll eat alive."
Usually it's Peters and Seymour eating each other alive, but they were following up Thursday's meeting with another one.
"I'm going to see a man about a horse," Seymour said as he went into the meeting.
But there was no horsing around. The meeting lasted just over five minutes and Seymour got stuck on his way out. His pass didn't let him leave New Zealand First's turf. Peters' chief of staff came to their rescue.
"We're here to raise productivity and sometimes you can get a lot of useful things done in a short space of time and that was one of them," Seymour said as he left.
"We've left early because we've done exactly what we hoped to do."
There's no comment on policy concessions yet. All three parties will have to compromise in some way on some of their election promises.
But Seymour said he was "very happy".
The Nats kept their heads down - and bellies full. Deputy Nicola Willis was spotted getting some Uber Eats.
Meanwhile, New Zealand First's MPs were heading home for the weekend.
National leader Christopher Luxon was too on Friday night. He said talks were "progressing well".
"We have got a lot to cover off. We are working hard to get a strong and stable Government in place," he told Newshub.
He said there was "a lot more to do" and it was "very positive" that Peters and Seymour were meeting.
Newshub understands ACT and National will meet in Auckland on Saturday, as will ACT and New Zealand First.
