Church leaders led pre-dawn chants of hallelujah for New Zealand before prime minister Jacinda Ardern served hundreds a free breakfast barbecue as the nation awoke to celebrate its national day, Waitangi Day, on Thursday.
Ms Ardern was among the many to gather at Waitangi before sunrise as part of commemorations on the 180th anniversary of the Treaty of Waitangi's signing.
That agreement, forged by European and Maori on 6 February in 1840, is New Zealand's foundational document.
Thousands of Kiwis joined Ms Ardern and leaders from all walks of New Zealand life both inside and around Waitang's 'te Whare Runanga', or upper meeting house, in commemoration of that convenient.
The almighty carved house opened eighty years ago on Waitangi Day as part of treaty centenary celebrations, is unlike other meeting houses in that it represents not one tribe - but the unity of Maori across Aotearoa.
Duncan Webb, Labour MP for Christchurch Central, left, Jacinda Ardern, New Zealand Prime Minister and James Shaw, Climate Change Minister serve up the barbecue Source: AAP
The semi-religious and multi-language service was at times sombre, humorous and aspirational.
Among many to speak were chief justice Helen Winkelmann, navy chief David Proctor, police commissioner Mike Bush and race relations commissioner Meng Foon.
Ms Ardern offered a prayer for "the poor, the sick, those who suffer prejudice and those that are lonely" before reciting the national anthem.
"Today we pray for our people, our history, and our future," she said.
"On this 180th Waitangi Day let us pledge to take us across the bridge between two peoples.
"Give us the courage to learn to walk comfortably in each other's shoes."
The week of engagements in Waitangi has taken place without the same tenor of protest that has often characterised the occasion.
A Maori warrior at the New Zealand Navy parade. Source: AAP
But at the conclusion of the service, as participants filed silently out of the meeting house, one woman issued a sole cry for land rights.
"It's a new day ... return the stolen land and then the day will be truly beautiful," she yelled, before bagpipes filled the air.
Visitors then watched the sunrise over the Bay of Islands, while Ms Ardern and her government ministers in attendance took up tongs behind a free barbecue.
With bumper crowds well above previous years, organisers feared they would not be able to feed everyone in the monster line.
