Something truly magical happened yesterday, and I’m not talking about the National Party imploding. I woke up to see Ma’a Nonu, a proud Samoan man and an All Black legend, finding not only the courage but the reason to respond to the All Blacks haka with a solo haka of his own. As Scotty Morrison said, doing a solo haka is as tough as it gets. But for me, what made the moment so powerful was watching one of our greatest ever All Blacks feel the need and the pride to perform it in South Africa, while playing for a South African team. To me, that is a sign of how far some of us have come in New Zealand. Despite the pathetic attempts from certain sectors of our country to minimise, dismiss and belittle te reo Māori and Māori culture, people like Ma’a are proof in the pudding that there are so many more of us who embrace it, respect it and celebrate it. That’s the New Zealand I want to be part of. Watching Ma’a Nonu stand there in South Africa and perform that haka, I felt incredibly proud of him and incredibly proud of the country we can still choose to become.