His score card was perfect after he topped qualifying and won all three races, becoming only the third driver in the SuperTourer series to take a clean sweep.
''We couldn't really improve on our weekend,'' a jubilant Murphy said.
• Slideshow: Toyota Racing Series at Highlands Motorsport Park
Known for using the number 51 for many years, he turned up for the opening round with the number one on his Holden Commodore, having earned the right to it by winning the championship last year.
''I had a bit of an argument with myself about the number but I decided to make the most of it and use the number one. It's been a while since I had a number one,'' Murphy, who is now back living in Hawkes Bay, said.
Racing in the Highlands 101 meeting in November last year had given him a track knowledge advantage over the majority of his rivals, he said.
''There's no question it's a bit easier than last year,'' he said referring to the absence of V8 Supercar drivers Shane Van Gisbergen and Scott McLaughlin, who raced in the 2013 V8 SuperTourer series.
Van Gisbergen is in the United States racing in the Daytona 24 Hours event and McLaughlin elected to miss this round.
Murphy led all the way through race one on Saturday, with young Aucklander Andre Heimgartner's Holden the only car in his mirrors for most of the distance.
Heimgartner finished second behind the champion in this race and is second in the series, 63 points behind Murphy.
Angus Fogg suffered a spectacular crash at the end of lap one, making heavy contact with the concrete wall coming on to the start-finish straight.
The accident brought out the safety car, left his Commodore looking a real mess and ruled him out of the next two races. Fellow Aucklander Mitch Cunningham had an all-too-close view of the crash.
''Angus hit the wall and bounced back. I saw it coming and moved as far to the right as I could, but I couldn't avoid hitting him,'' Cunningham said.
Highlands' owner Tony Quinn dismissed any suggestion circuit design could be a factor. He said drivers would keep pushing until they found the car's limits and that was where accidents sometimes occurred.
''It's driver error, nothing else.''
Hamilton's Ant Pedersen, second in the championship last year, ran his Falcon third all the way though under pressure from Aucklander Simon Evans for some laps, until Evans' engine failed.
In the second race yesterday Heimgartner was second and Evans third.
In the final 20-lap feature, Murphy's team-mate Richard Moore, of Auckland, came through to second - and third overall in series points - on a wet track that sent three drivers spinning off in the slippery conditions.
Taupo's Mark Gibson (21) achieved a creditable breakthrough, as he finished third in the feature race in his first meeting as a fulltime driver in the SuperTourers series.
He had been a co-driver in the endurance events last year but has now taken over John McIntyre's Ford Falcon.
McIntyre said he was not missing the driving and instead was ''loving seeing the car going round with Mark doing such a great job.''
The seven-round series continues at the New Zealand Grand Prix at Manfeild in a fortnight's time.
