Once again we find ourselves in the midst of an excellent economic week.

It's excellent, if you wish to see it that way.

100% of hotels will be full this coming Wednesday in Auckland. Broadly speaking, you can't get a room.

Auckland hasn’t been full in years.

Along with the broad-based cruise season and the warmer summer travel period, we have a large conference and a major concert.

This can only get better when the convention centre is open and Eden Park can actually open its gates under proper first-world rules.

So, a record for hotel rooms.

A record also for first home buyers – never have there been more young people getting into their first home. This is the real celebration.

Despite many people's best efforts to steer money elsewhere, nothing beats real estate. It’s a multi-generational obsession in this country and nothing will ever shift it.

The owner of a home. A place to call home. The ability to adjust and mould it to your life and aspirations is not to be underestimated and people will bleed for the pleasure.

Money is cheap-ish. Money is readily available and people are buying. Good on them.

What drives all this is a few simple economic truths – if you get the basics right you can't lose.

This country must be a destination. It must be open, and it must be welcoming, hence the importance of sorting our downtown's out with the homeless and trouble.

The fundamentals must also be right. If you get inflation under control, you earn your way instead of forever borrowing and you set the economic table for the country to be able to spend and take risk and believe that they have a chance and a future.

There is still plenty to do. Jobs needs to come right, but the ads are up.

The media could play their part and drop the misery obsession. News can be neutral and positive, as well as negative.

And the funk brigade could try, just try, to accept that actually there is a decent shaft of light at the end of that tunnel.

Business confidence in the SME sector also had a good week.

Oh, and the All Blacks won and will win again this weekend, if that stuff moves your needle.

In simple terms, this country is going places.

I'm bullish on 2026. This week has been a good building block.

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116: Courtesy of a Private Collector