Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern's second overseas trip this year - this time, to the United States - comes in the midst of numerous geopolitical uncertainties.
With Russia waging war on Ukraine and China flexing its power in the Pacific, the US has been repositioning - and New Zealand spies opportunity.
But while Ardern's visit had intended to focus primarily on trade and tourism, a tragic school shooting in Texas has diverted attention and reignited the domestic debate over gun control.
The prime minister's American engagements began before she had even boarded the plane, joining remotely the launch of the Indo-Pacific Economic Framework with US president Joe Biden and Japan's prime minister Fumio Kishida.
IPEF is not the free trade deal New Zealand would like, but it holds potential, with an intention from its 13 member countries to set shared standards in areas such as the digital economy and supply chains.
The US has been accused of neglecting the Indo-Pacific in recent years, and China's aggressive relationship building in the Pacific looms large as motivation.
Beijing's recent security deal with the Solomons and the Chinese foreign minister's tour to sell a region-wide agreement have rattled the Pacific islands' traditional allies New Zealand and Australia.
A US return to the trans-Pacific trade pact Donald Trump abandoned in 2017 - now known as the CPTPP - would be the ideal for New Zealand, but domestic American politics make that currently implausible.
Ardern is not giving up on the idea, however, and she has some stateside supporters. At one of her first events in New York, US Chamber of Commerce vice president Myron Brilliant implored Ardern to encourage further US involvement in our part of the world.
RNZ
