Supporters at the ANZ Viaduct Events Centre in Auckland had expected a close fight - the mood becoming bullish and excited as the scale of the swing to the right became apparent.
The potentially skewing effect of the high advance vote on early results, and a bizarre election campaign, meant supporters were taking nothing for granted.
Many expected a National Party vote of 42%-44% and were slightly stunned as the 48% held up and solidified a third term for the National Government.
Confidence and a party atmosphere grew once it was clear New Zealand did not want a change of government, nor a hamstrung National-led government.
Some became euphoric, one young National supporter declaring: ''This is the best night ever.''
More than anything, it was seen as a personal vindication and victory for Prime Minister John Key. The atmosphere was still tense when the Otago Daily Times spoke to supporters shortly before 8.30pm, having just arrived from a nervous Green Party headquarters in Beresford Square.
Quite a few at National HQ said they had never attended a party central election event before. Many seemed drawn towards volunteer work and canvassing because of their admiration for the leader, Mr Key. One man said both his parents were heroin addicts, and he admired what the Government was doing in welfare reform.
National's strength in the party vote across the country made for less interest in provincial electorate seats.
However, supporters watching two large television screens cheered loudly every time the Te Tai Tokerau results were displayed showing Labour's Kelvin Davis edging out Hone Harawira.
Until the arrival of a triumphant John Key, the cheers for the Labour candidate were the loudest of the night.
Mr Davis' success spelled the end of the Kim Dotcom-driven Internet Mana movement that had become a circus and annoyed and even frightened many New Zealanders.
Mr Dotcom and his ill-judged foray into New Zealand politics was the toast of the night for some, because it drove voters back to National.
''This is fantastic.
''I won't hear a bad word said against that Dotcom,'' longtime National supporter Peter Kiely, of Auckland, delightedly told friends.
Mr Kiely told the ODT voters rejected Mr Dotcom and his attempt to influence New Zealand politics. Mr Dotcom had tried to ''hijack'' the election using the ''fugitive'' figures who gave presentations at the Auckland Town Hall last Monday night.
National supporters identified the Moment of Truth as the decisive turning point in their party's fortunes, and believe Mr Key has emerged unscathed from a series of attacks. The 3% to 5% it tacked on to the vote was crucial, shutting New Zealand First leader Winston Peters out of his desired role as kingmaker.
Supporter Peter Moore said Mr Key was ''feeling the love of the country''.
Mr Key's detractors tried to ''pillory'' him, and that led to an ''endorsement'' for the Prime Minister in the ballot box, Mr Moore said.
''It's a pivotal point in New Zealand,'' he said.
Anglican minister the Rev Valerie Hogan, of Auckland, acknowledged that her choice of party could be seen as unusual in her church.
''They don't know I'm a National Party supporter,'' she said of fellow church members.
Asked about child poverty, she said National was tackling the causes. Entrenching generations of welfare dependency did not help people break out of the poverty trap.
She summed up her view with a quote from Thessalonians, in the Bible: ''Where you don't work, you don't eat.''
Doubts about the Left's approach to child poverty were clearly shared by others, many of whom booed when Green Party co-leader Metiria Turei was on screen discussing child poverty and National's ''pollution economy'' with one of the TV stations.
For one supporter, who had travelled from Sydney, National's approach to the economy was a big drawcard. Infrastructure Partnerships Australia chief executive Brendan Lyon made the trip with his girlfriend to celebrate the return of the National-led Government.
National was ''leading the world'' in some respects in its approach to public private partnerships, Mr Lyon said. He said contracts such as the public-private prison, Wiri, would be torn up by a Labour-led Government.
Mr Lyon's girlfriend acknowledged she was there to ''drink the wine'' rather than having a particular interest in New Zealand's election.
Supporters were focused on the television screen when Auckland Grammar School boys performed a haka for Mr Key outside his Parnell house. Most loved it.
The haka set the scene for an atmospheric but highly controlled and orchestrated entrance when Mr Key, wife Bronagh, and son Max arrived at HQ.
Unlike on other election nights, supporters were cordoned off for the grand entrance, in keeping with National's disciplined and carefully scripted election campaign.
No throng of delighted well-wishers mobbed and slowed Mr Key's passage to the podium to declare ''three more years'' of a National Government. Parts of the enraptured crowd took up the chant of ''Three more years'' as it began to sink in Mr Key had done the seemingly impossible task of returning a third-term National Government with a higher share of the vote.
After Mr Key's short speech, some of the energy left the room, and supporters started to leave.
Some elated supporters continued the party, hugging and high-fiving one another, as the extraordinary night drew to a close.
