Today we had a very smooth road trip to celebrate Kate’s 62nd birthday. It was a day around so much could have gone wrong to ruin it. Although there were problems, it went very smoothly.

It was supposed to be last Sunday, but she organised a meeting that day to start drafting submissions on ACT’s racist law to change the principles of Te Tiriti o Waitangi. Also, I was in hospital for several days with an infection. We delayed for a week.

We managed to keep the activity a secret, but we went to Masterton to see our friend, Keren Chiarone’s, paintings in the art gallery, complete with guided tour by her, followed by lunch at The Screening Room.

These were two things she had wanted to do over summer so we beat her to it.

Kate was very happy.