Now is the time for Australia to pause to smell the roses. Take your pick: Absolutely Fabulous? Celebration Time? For Adam Voges, Tall Story? For Usman Khawaja, Cinderella? For everyone, New Dawn? Most would have been there for the sniffing in a garden in an adjacent corner of Hagley Park on this glorious Wednesday afternoon, if the Australians wanted. But they were intent on singing about a sprig of wattle.
Momentarily, the least likely to have come up smelling of roses was the captain, Steve Smith. In the morning, he learnt he had been charged with dissent, growing out of Tuesday's abrupt exchange with umpire Ranmore Martinesz. It had shocked him. But instead of protest, he pleaded guilty and pledged himself and his team to be better henceforth. "I need to set the example, and that wasn't good enough," he said. Here was Time To Remember. 
In truth, the incident was out of character both for Smith and Josh Hazlewood, and for Australia in the short time they have been under Smith, and out of step with the tone of the series. Even David Warner has been angelic; he was conspicuously absent from Tuesday's affray.
It was the retiring Brendon McCullum who noted on Wednesday that Australian cricket teams tended to play in the image of their captains. His signal achievement had been to have New Zealand play in his likeness. This summer, he said, he had noticed a subtle cultural difference in Smith's Australia. "They skin the cat slightly differently," he said. He did not elaborate and Smith would not, but the implication was clear. Of course, these are early days. New Zealand was neither as good as England nor as brown as India, so no friction arose until at last the Kiwis managed to bat through a session. It soon passed. For now (excepting one bum note), here was Amazing Grace.
Then there was the No.1 laurel. Other than the accompanying $1 million cheque, it is mostly a symbolic crowning. Intuition says England, who are  ranked No.5, are the best Test team in the world this minute. But no rankings system is perfect. We accept the way golfers and tennis players are rated, imperfections and all, so as the points wash through the system, Australia might as well bask. In this plot, Dizzy Heights.
Once, No.1 was taken for granted in Australia and was rarely mentioned. But other than during a brief statistical blip in 2014, Australia have not been No.1 since 2009. Two-hundred-and-two days ago, when Australia surrendered the Ashes so meekly at Trent Bridge, it still seemed like a pipe dream. It was all blood and bone then. As it turns out, the points they earned for winning two matches even while losing that series are vital to their standing now. Over here, Englands Heroes!
Removing the rose-coloured glasses, it can be seen that Australia has risen on the basis of eight recent Tests against Nos 5 and 7 in the world. But a team can but only cycle as scheduled.
More to the point, this is the ascent of a new team, with a new captain and new dynamics. In his acknowledgements, Smith was careful to enfold the six big-name retirees of the past 12 months, the Absent Friends, for the way the system works, their deeds are still counting. But his team is like Christchurch itself, only midway through a total reconstruction, already rising impressively. Here's Faith, and Imagination and, yes, Lucky, all bursting forth in the sun.
Unlike Christchurch, there are few gaping holes. The top five all average between 49 and 60. The all-rounder and the wicketkeeper are growing into their difficult roles. The attack is a Hydra, losing heads and growing them back instantly, sometimes doubly. James Pattinson was worth two in this match; hopefully he is at last at the start of a string of matches (though if there was anything modified about his action here, it was hard to see). Blooming here, New Beginnings.
The last day of this long Test summer was a reprise of them all. The pitch was still a bed of roses, but the bowling was thorny. Neil Wagner again came at the Australians with a short-ball barrage, to a McCullum-patented field of three short mid-wickets and square leg or leg gully. If it wasn't intimidatory, it was only in the way that attempted murder is not murder.
It fell principally to Joe Burns to stare down and wear down Wagner, and he did, with a true opener's stoicism. Smith then took Wagner apart by widening his stance and playing a series of astonishing shots, including a straight drive played with a perpendicular bat, the advised angle, except that in Smith's hands it was upside down and he was wielding it like an axeman standing over a log. It went for four. Here was the unorthodox, trumping the unconventional. Here was Atomic Blonde.
And yet, you wondered if the Kiwis undersold themselves. Twice in the the post-match rituals, McCullum thanked his team for buying into the idea that they would have to dare to be different. His way always was different anyway. This radicalism had given the team their soul, he said. And yet the only wicket the Kiwis took while the match was still vaguely alive on Wednesday was by classic Test theory. Tim Southee, who had a wretched series, bowled eight dot balls in a row at Khawaja, until he swished impatiently at the ninth and was caught at slip. Might not a little bit less heterodoxy from time to time benefit the Kiwis? That is Kane Wiliamson's question to answer now.
It was all Ruffles and Flourishes as Australia eased home. Voges ??? who else? ??? hit the winning runs. All hung metaphorical garlands around the neck of the redoubtable McCullum, then for Australia, it was time to inhale deeply the sweet perfume of The Celebration Rose.