Not long after Joe Biden’s victory last November in the US election, he called Jacinda Ardern to say he wanted to “reinvigorate” the relationship between his country and New Zealand. On a visit here in 2016, when he was vice president, Biden told reporters that America and New Zealand were “cut from the same cloth”. He explained that two of his uncles fought in World War II, and that he had grown up hearing stories about the toughness and bravery of New Zealand soldiers.

The US and New Zealand do indeed have a long history — one that goes back almost as far as our country’s history with the British but is far less understood. American whalers began to visit these islands in the 1790s; they were soon followed by sealers. Unlike the British, who could base themselves in Sydney or, later, Hobart and Melbourne, the Americans were far from home ports, and often spent months in our harbours and estuaries, relying upon the hospitality