The official head of state of New Zealand is the Monarch of the Commonwealth Realms. The monarch’s birthday is officially celebrated in many parts of New Zealand. On her accession in 1952 Queen Elizabeth II was proclaimed in New Zealand ‘Queen of this Realm and all her other Realms’. Her representative in New Zealand, the governor general, has symbolic and ceremonial roles and is not involved in the daytoday running of the government, which is the domain of the prime minister. Her actual birthday is on April 21, but it’s celebrated as a public holiday on the first Monday of June.