It's been an unusual day at Parliament. President Zelensky became the first national leader to address the House, and then MPs travelled in time. At least on paper.
Unless you've been hiding under a stone you will know that the President of Ukraine Volodymyr Zelensky addressed a special meeting of New Zealand's Parliament on Wednesday morning.
His address (and the party leaders' responses) have been covered in detail elsewhere. Suffice to say it was a fascinating and unusual occasion. More unusual than most folk realise.
Despite media descriptions, it wasn't the second time a foreign leader has addressed the New Zealand Parliament - it was the very first.
Yes the former Australian Prime Minister Julia Gillard spoke to MPs eleven years ago, but that was different. The Clerk of the House of Representatives explains.
"Back in 2011, when Julia Gillard did come to New Zealand to speak to members of Parliament, there was no mechanism in the rules to allow someone who wasn't a member of the House to speak to it. And so effectively, what happened is that all the members gathered in the debating chamber, and the Prime Minister of Australia spoke to them, but not as the House of Representatives, simply as a collection of MPs."
They could have been anyone, anywhere. After the Julia Gillard occasion MPs changed their rules to make such a speech possible without having to fake it.
This week they finally found the opportunity to use those rules and have their first "State occasion" to hear an address from a non-MP. So Wednesday morning's event really was historic. It seems fitting that the speaker was an extraordinary figure of the age.
Who can speak in the House of Representatives?
The rules about who can enter the debating chamber and who can speak are interesting.
The key thing to know is that the place belongs to MPs. Everyone else is a "stranger".
"It's a debating chamber for elected representatives to come and speak. It's not a town square for everyone to talk," says David Wilson.
There are a few other people that can speak, but only for specific purposes. The Clerk and his staff give various announcements. The Serjeant-at-arms can also speak but his typical announcements are just two shouted words - "MISTAH SPEAKAH!!"
Those people are all Officers of the House. There are just two more categories who can speak. Volodymyr Zelensky fell into the first of one - list him under 'guests invited to speak as part of a State occasion'.
The final category has also only happened once. You might list it as 'people in deep trouble'…