While the official announcement is yet to be made,this could be the very first state visit made by a New Zealand governor general to the Pope.The governor general's office said they had "consulted historian Gavin McLean and as far as we can ascertain, no governor-general has ever met the pope [in Rome]".

Massey University Professor of History Peter Lineham, an expert in New Zealand religious history, said the visit reflects respect for the Vatican's role in international diplomacy.

He said the role that the Vatican has taken in a number of international issues, particularly in trying to bring about an end in civil strife in Syria and Lebanon, has been increasingly recognised.

"I think it's a mark of respect of the diplomacy of the Vatican as well as a normal courtesy of the head of state to meet another head of state," he said.

Mr McLean is a senior historian with the History Group of the Ministry for Culture and Heritage and author of Governors: New Zealand's Governors and Governors-General (2006).

• Pope John Paul II met Sir Paul Reeves when he visited New Zealand in in 1986.
• Dame Siliva Cartwright attended the funeral of Pope John Paul II

Source

• NZ Catholic
• Image: Wikimedia.com static.guim.co.uk

"There are events happening all around the country which are about celebration... I think there's a whole lot of New Zealanders that are celebrating."

He says that while he thinks there is "a huge racial harmony" in New Zealand, there are issues that need to be addressed.

There are people with genuine reasons for wanting to say: 'Hey look, do you understand what happened to us over the course of our history?'"

"I think it's to the credit of successive governments that they have stood up and are addressing those," he said.

There is still conflict and much to work on, he says, but Waitangi Day is a time and a place where these issues can be aired and discussed.

The Maori-Crown relationship is deteriorating in the eyes of the public. A UMR Research poll commissioned by the Human Rights Commission has found fewer than a quarter of New Zealanders agree the relationship is healthy.

The numbers have fallen for the fifth straight year.

Source

• TVNZ
• The New Zealand Herald