Warm welcome for tourists in Auckland

There will be some who believe the Lions should have been in recovery mode back in Auckland yesterday morning rather than marching up the hill at the Waitangi Treaty Grounds to sing a few songs.

Yet if ever there was an occasion to highlight the power and uniqueness of the Lions as well as underline its commitment to the people of the countries it tours, then it was the Powhiri, or Maori welcome ceremony, at New Zealand’s most symbolic and historic site.

It was here, looking out across the beautiful Bay of Islands in the north of the North Island that New Zealand’s founding document, the Treaty of Waitangi, was signed on February 6, 1840, by the British Crown and Maori chiefs, both colonisers of these Pacific Ocean islands.