President Mary McAleese packed eight engagements into the second day of her State visit to New Zealand.
She inspected Conservation House, a government ecology initiative, called on two Irish clubs, spoke at an Enterprise Ireland lunch, unveiled a plaque to the memory of Irish pioneer settlers, addressed a reception given by the Irish Ambassador to Australia and New Zealand and attended a private dinner as guest of prime minister Helen Clark.
She received a warm welcome at the Wellington and Hutt Valley Irish clubs where the queues lengthened, migrants of 50 years and more shaking her hand with both of theirs, murmuring a surname and a birthplace.
She told them: "you can't unpack the story of New Zealand without unearthing Ireland almost everywhere you look."
On a blustery Wellington waterfront Mrs McAleese unveiled a plaque to the memory of early settlers, both Orange and Green.
"Here, away from the vanities of history at home, they learned how to reconcile. Their success abroad gave us faith in ourselves at a time when it was a struggle to find such faith."
At the Enterprise Ireland function, she told a packed venue that trade between New Zealand and Ireland now exceeded €100 million.
Business affairs switched to the realm of culture when musicians travelling on tour earned a standing ovation at the ambassador's reception. Here the visit unbuttoned the collar and the President played the humour card to good effect.
Referring to the skill of two young dancers from Dublin, she glanced at her Belfast-born husband and told the audience: "Belfast men don't dance. Belfast men can't dance. They're saving their legs for something much more important."
The President flies to Dunedin in the far south tomorrow for engagements at Otago University.