It was a case of many happy returns as rugby fans welcomed back the Ranfurly Shield at Hawke's Bay Airport today.
For rugby union stalwart Gary Macdonald it was the fourth time, with three of the four different captains.
He was at the airport when Kel Tremain stepped from the plane with the shield aloft the day after a 6-0 win in Hamilton in 1966, in 2013 when Mike Coman brought it back from the 2013 win over Otago in and a year later when Brendon O'Connor had the honour after the Hawke's Bay Magpies had claimed it back from Counties-Manukau.
He was there again today, as youngest match-day reserve prop Joel Hintz led the team into the arrivals lounge, as part-finished as it was, and with victorious captain Ash Dixon having had to stay behind in Dunedin for a meeting.
Among just over 100 fans waiting, who had started gathering more than half-an-hour before team's arrival, some with flags from the Hawke's Bay Embroidery ladies outside the entrance, it was only the names and faces that were different.
"Not a bad record, eh?" he says as he awaits the latest arrival, and ponders how he had to wait 44 years to come home again after the end of the 1966-1969 shield era, and now he's seen it three times in seven years.
"It never, ever, gets ordinary," says Macdonald, the former Marineland manager who turned his voluntary enthusiasm into a career running club rugby with the Hawke's Bay Rugby Union. "It's just as special every time."
Longevity as a van was also with Waipukurau man John Jenkins, who made the trip up from Central Hawke's Bay to welcome the team home, with his woollen Magpies scarf, which has been around just about as long as he has.
From memory, he bought it at some shop in Waipukurau in 1967, and it's been to every Hawke's Bay Ranfurly Shield match in the North Island since, about 50 matches in all.
"I take it everywhere with me, it's been around the World," he says, as he fingers the fringes, nary a fray and looking like it could go another good old Hawke's Bay Ranfurly Shield era yet.
"To me, it's like a heart," he says, as Hintz and 2014-2015 shield minder Jason Long pose for photos with the prize. "I love it."
Magpies super-fan Shayne Dickson was "again" in awe seeing the shield back in the Bay - "where it belongs".
"Hell. There's nothing like it," he said. "I never thought I'd see it in my lifetime. Now we've won it three times in seven years."
Fortuitously pre-planning a day off, he said Hawke's Bay's been a force in New Zealand rugby for a long time, it's back in its right place with a big future - tanks to a team full of homegrown talent.
"It's about the passion and the pride," he said, and he expects no less from the team as they play for the Shield - hopefully all three matches scheduled and locking the shield away for the summer.
But he also expects no less from the fans, and, disappointed with the less-than-expected numbers at the previous week's historical win over Canterbury, he's urging the spectators to "get off their butts" and get to McLean Park for the defences.
The first is against Northland on the Friday night of October 16, at McLean Park, where he will be coveting his usual position on the embankment, near the scoreboard.
Nearby at the airport, longtime Napier Boys' High School rugby coach Del Whyte is standing with 5-year-old grandson Jason Whyte, who is already in his second season of rugby.
His day is still to come, and amid the general awe his own quiet is understandable.
As understandable as the question: "Are you going to be a Magpie?
The nod says it all.