In these days of a "global village", it is unsurprising that New Zealand has neighbours around that globe.
The most poignant illustration of this was made to me at Ballance House in Lisburn, Northern Ireland, which I visited as part of the recent Speaker's Delegation trip to four European countries.
Local Lisburn councillor Pat Catney, who visited Whanganui last year, emphasised that the vast majority of Northern Irish had not taken part in sectarian violence during the troubles but had continued to work, feed their families, and send their children to school, and they held great hope in the maintenance of peace in Northern Ireland.
He said quite strongly that New Zealand is one of only seven countries that are guarantors of the Good Friday Agreement and with that came the responsibility to monitor the keeping of that agreement.
This same point was made most emphatically the day before when our delegation met with members from across the parliament.
They thanked us for visiting them and for the knowledge and assistance New Zealand had given them in bringing disparate and diverse groups together despite that background of animosity.
The fact is that New Zealand's interest in and relationship with Northern Ireland goes further than a governmental one. Governments are merely the political party who won the last election.
One in six New Zealand settlers were from Ireland and a quarter of those came from Ulster. Our North and South Islands were once named New Ulster and New Munster. The Irish want to know that the relationship and the burden of responsibility that comes with being a guarantor lies with the New Zealand Parliament, regardless of election success or otherwise.
This is the same message that came from the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD), Unesco and the French parliament and senate - that the connection between the countries is with government and opposition MPs so will be enduring and drill down deeper than current policies of the day.
You only have to scratch the surface in Northern Ireland to feel the tension.
The night we were there a man went to remove a poster from a lamppost and it exploded in his face. Police Land Rovers are fully armour plated and skirted to prevent grenades being thrown under the vehicle as it passes, while bombs still go off occasionally and people get shot regularly.
There is a "peace wall" which runs for about 9km through part of Belfast separating Unionist Protestants from Republican Catholics.
As one man said to me: "If you asked every person in Belfast if they want the peace wall to come down, 98 per cent would say yes. But if you asked them if it should come down tomorrow, 100 per cent would say that was too soon."
So, if we think our responsibility as a guarantor of the Good Friday Agreement can be met by never visiting Northern Ireland to monitor how this peace is lasting, by just turning up when stuff hits the fan to growl and chastise people we have never laid eyes on, we are wrong.
Given the furore in the media over this Speaker's Delegation trip to Europe, I wonder what those media think the role of a guarantor is.
In this global village New Zealand can be a closed garage door, a drawn curtain or just a letterbox in the street - or it can be an active, vibrant neighbour in the community, whose loyalty runs deeper than a postal code.
