The royal couple leave New Zealand on Tuesday for Australia.
Advertisement
Prince Charles and Camilla then signed the visitors’ book and unveiled the Commonwealth Walkway plaque.
Yesterday, the focus was on diplomacy as the royal couple’s official Twitter page wished both the Australian and New Zealand rugby teams good luck ahead of their tour Downunder.
However, the Prince of Wales and his wife, the Duchess of Cornwall were greeted by cold, wet weather in the capital in an arrival overshadowed by the return of the country’s victorious All Blacks from the Rugby World Cup.
The royal couple will be met by Prime Minister John Key and his wife Bronagh, along with Wellington mayor Celia Wade-Brown, before heading to Government House for an official welcome.
On Monday, he announced Australia will no longer appoint knights and dames under its honours system.
They were then whisked into a waiting auto – off to their next engagement, a state reception at Government House.
“But it’s might be the last time we get to see Prince Charles”.
By the time the royals arrived at War Memorial Park, the crowd watching had grown to a couple of hundred. The royal couple arrived aboard a Royal New Zealand Air force aircraft.
THE Wellington weather has played havoc with Prince Charles and Camilla’s first day in New Zealand.
They laid a wreath inside the Hall of Memories and spoke briefly with veterans from World War II and Korea, including former British Paratroopers and members of the Russian Convoy.
Helped by the Prime Minister, their Royal Highnesses laid ferns on the Tomb of the Unknown Warrior – although the wind did its best to blow them away. During their trip they will visit Turangawaewae Marae, the home of the Maori monarchs, where they will see a flotilla of Maori canoes on the Waikato River.
They will also mark New Zealand’s Conservation Week by paying a visit to the Orokonui Eco-Sanctuary – home to a few of the country’s rarest creatures and plants in the most protected forest in the South Island.
Mr Turnbull, who is Australia’s fourth leader since 2013, was chairman of the Australian Republican Movement for seven years.
They will also travel to Australia, where they will meet new prime minister Malcolm Turnbull, a vocal republican.
Advertisement
But in recent years, the popularity of the Duke and Duchess of Cambridge and their children has dampened enthusiasm for replacing the monarch with a president, with Prince George being dubbed the “republican slayer” when he joined his parents on a tour of the country in 2014.
