The efforts of the St. John Ambulance service should also be mentioned – without them on scene, this whole ordeal could have played out a lot differently. As I personally have needed their service before, I plan on donating to the St. John charity again (alongside the inevitable victim support donations my wife and I have discussed).

Alongside the paramedics, Christchurch Hospital should be honoured for their crisis management and swift action to prevent any more tragedy. While there are obviously enough beds for a hospital to accommodate such an influx, it's another story to have so many acute cases arrive at once – not least since they would likely all have required the expertise of a certain type, something not many hospitals would be equipped for, anywhere in the world.

Finally, I think our dear PM, Jacinda Ardern deserves the unequivocal support of our entire nation. She was a symbol of our resilience, rock-solid in her conviction and unwavering in the shadow of a formidable situation.

Her agility to condemn this act as a hate crime and to declare this an attack against all New Zealand is something to behold. "They are us" are words that will stick with the world for a long time to come and hopefully embed them into the ethos of everyday humanity.

While the world stood-by speculating exactly how this will be labelled because of the race of the gunman, she hastily instilled the sense of unity and integration that belies the Kiwi nature and identified this barbaric act as terrorism. 

When the question of how these weapons were made available in the first place, she was quick to address the need for reform.

As the nation started to realize the magnitude of the event, she remained strong and composed, delivering the information needed, as it came to light.