February 26, 2010. This is the day that this season of cricket will kick into top gear.
The Australians are coming and a series with our Trans-Tasman foes remains our most prized opportunity.
Some of the previous Australians teams have arrived with an air on intimidation; their traditional swagger enough to recoil timid Kiwis even before a ball was bowled.
In 1974 it was the Chappell brothers blasting boundaries and Dougie Walters getting blasted in the bars of our fair country.
Through the '80's New Zealand prospered as Australia rebuilt its reputation post-Packer. If anything, it was the Australians who recoiled - the thought of facing a rampant RJ Hadlee enough to drive Greg Matthews and co to madness.
But through the '90s, the Aussies re-established their superiority, largely based around the emergence of Shane Warne as a genuine world great.
The teams of the Warne era were tough nuts. Allan Border passed the captaincy baton to Mark Taylor who then let Steve Waugh carry it onwards.
Nothing much changed in Australian cricket during that period - except that the relentless drive to become the world's best team became its inevitable goal, and once that summit was reached, it refused to let standards slip.
I have played in many Kiwi teams that have played against the Aussies, and there is no doubt that it is the mental battle that needs to be won first and foremost.
Too often past Kiwi sides have entered the fray with Australia not believing the game can be won. A mere whiff of Ocker invincibility was enough to send shivers through the Kiwi camp.
Simply put, the 'big brother/ small brother' analogy that is often used to describe Trans-Tasman relations in so many fields could also be used in a cricketing sense.
It is this mental battle that Dan Vettori and Mark Greatbatch must centre on as the competition looms with Ricky Ponting's men. Somehow all kinds of kidology needs to be used to get the message across that this Aussie side is beatable.
And there is no doubt in my mind that the intimidation factor of this Aussie team is much less than with previous tourists.
They are a good bunch of cricketers with one or two standout players. But their strengths are in teamwork, determination, and in finding a way to win. A never-say-die approach that characterises teams that lack star quality and realizes that sum of all parts needs to be maximized.
Don't get me wrong - the task of beating the Aussies is a tough one.
But if the belief is there, New Zealand might just edge the series.