United States presidential visits to Australia and New Zealand United States presidential visits to Australia and New Zealand Several United States presidents have made presidential visits to Australia and New Zealand. The first visit by an incumbent to these Australasian nations was made in 1966 by Lyndon B. Johnson. His three-day five-city visit to Australia was intended as a show of gratitude to the Australian nation for its then emphatic support for the Vietnam War. Four presidents have traveled there since. Prior to arriving in Australia, Johnson visited New Zealand. He went primarily to shore up support for the war in Vietnam. Only one sitting president has visited since.
Kalākaua's 1874–75 state visit to the United States predecessors, he belonged to fraternal organizations, as a member of the freemasonry lodge "Le Progres de l’Oceanie", and as the founding member of the Ancient Order of Foresters in Hawaii. When Kalākaua embarked on his state visit to the United States, nine months after being elected, he was the first reigning monarch to visit America, but not the first member of Hawaii's royal family to do so. He was the second reigning Hawaiian monarch to travel abroad, having been preceded in 1824 by King Kamehameha II and Queen Kamāmalu, who had traveled to the United Kingdom via the Strait of