It was not just a moment.
It was a moment when the nation huddled around television sets or inched their way into a packed Basin Reserve.
A moment when the cricket infidels joined the faithful fans in a tense and breathless vigil.
A moment of peace when nothing else matters except the next 19 runs.
We all watched anxiously as Brendon McCullum resumed on 281 against India at the Basin Reserve that Tuesday morning in February nearly eight years ago now.
Then there were those other moments.
The moments of doubt.
The moments when the weight of the impending milestone just seemed too much to bear.
The moments when it seemed as if McCullum might throw the opportunity away with a rash shot.
The moments when we could not look.
But a place in New Zealand cricket folklore was waiting for him.
He chopped the ball down to third man to become the first New Zealander to score a test triple century.
He eclipsed the late Martin Crowe’s long-standing New Zealand test record of 299 and had combined in a 352-run stand with BJ Watling — a world record sixth-wicket partnership at the time.
Remarkable stuff and arguably so unlike McCullum.
The Baz we had all grown to admire was an audacious stroke-player. The guy who danced down the wicket with big dreams.
His strength had always been his unwavering willingness to smash the bowling. That strength was also a sabre his critics would use to trim his achievements.
He was reckless, impatient and a gambler who could not occupy the crease any longer than a millennial could hold a thought, they said.
His wicket was sacrificed to ambition too often and his instincts were at the helm when a steady hand was required.
Perhaps some of that was true some of the time. But the innings McCullum will be most fondly remembered for was one of restraint, patience and self-control.
The kid from South Dunedin batted for nearly 11 hours and faced 559 balls.
Ordinarily that would have been enough deliveries for him to whop perhaps a thousand runs if he had felt like it or he was in the mood.
But New Zealand had collapsed to 94 for five and the series victory was slipping away.
McCullum had scored a rapid double century in the first test to set up the win in Auckland, so he was in marvellous touch. But the question was could he play a very different type of innings in Wellington to help secure a draw and consequently the series win.
Yes. Yes he could.
He had a crook back and sore shoulder, but probably his biggest battle was curbing his natural tendency to clobber it.
The Otago Daily Times celebrated the astonishing achievement with a free poster included in the newspaper the next day.
It takes pride of place in our little corner of the office where the sports department retires to string a few cliches together.
But what could you possibly say about McCullum’s effort that did not seem ordinary by comparison?
We will leave the last words to the man himself.
"The moment that 300 came up and the applause that was ongoing for quite a while, that really hit home to me, I guess, that it was such a significant achievement for a New Zealander and something that I'll certainly remember for the rest of my life," McCullum said afterwards.
Ten years ago sports editor Hayden Meikle came up with an ambitious yet slightly mad idea to research and publish the 150th greatest moments in Otago sport to mark the 150th anniversary of the Otago Daily Times.
The details of that initial meeting have now faded. But no doubt there was stunned silence.
It was a lot of work. A huge amount of research, planning and writing went into the series and the result was an exhaustive history of Otago sport.
It ran for nearly six months — 150 publishing days — as we counted down to the No 1 moment in Otago sport.
Danyon Loader's effort in winning two gold medals in the pool at the 1996 Atlanta Olympics took the gong.
It brought an end to what Meikle wrote was "a remarkable project of which the Otago Daily Times is immensely proud, and which I doubt has been matched in scale or scope by any other newspaper in this country".
The criteria was simple — if the moments featured an Otago person or happened in Otago, they could be considered. Those rules got bent once or twice.
We had to bend the rules again in the Next 10. There was robust debate about whether the Steel met the criteria for example.
Ranking the 150 moments was difficult. The early ones from 150 through to 60 were not strictly ordered but we ended up with a very solid top 50.
Rugby and cricket featured strongly but the series highlighted nearly 30 different sports.
The 1990s was the most prominent decade, but 47 of the 150 moments were pre-1960, so the series was not skewed too far towards the modern era.
But many wonderful moments never made the cut and the same was true for the Next 10.
Some key decisions were made before Paralympian javelin thrower Holly Robinson won gold in Tokyo, but her inspirational story will be told elsewhere in Summer Times.
Dunedin Technical’s effort in winning the Kate Sheppard Cup in 2018 was a notable absence.
The Otago Volts' 15-game T20 winning-streak in 2012-13, which included victory in the domestic T20 final, was judged outside the top 10 as well.
Clearly it is not all Happy Days for the Next 10.
