The Duke
and Duchess of Cambridge, together with their baby son Prince George arrived in
New Zealand today. They will have a bit over a week of official engagements
and sightseeing prior to heading to Australia on Wednesday 16 April (just in
time for Easter!)
On Good
Friday the Royal couple will visit the Sydney Royal Easter Show and are
expected to take Prince George with them. On Easter Sunday they are still in
Sydney and will be attending a service at St Andrew's Cathedral after which
they will take a family trip to Taronga Zoo. Apparently the bilby enclosure is
going to be named after Prince George so he's sure to love that! For more on that story follow the link Taronga helps celebrate the birth of the Royal baby
After a
quick trip to Brisbane they will head back to Sydney and then on to Uluru, where
they will camp for the night. From there the Royals go to Adelaide and Canberra
- where they will attend an ANZAC Day march and commemorative service. They leave
Australia later the same day.
Many parallels
can be drawn between this Royal visit and that of Charles and Diana in 1983 when they toured Australia and New Zealand with a nine month old Prince
William. However, this will surely be a happier trip than that one. Princess
Diana had fought hard to bring William with her, a move that even Charles did
not support, and apparently William's presence made their trip more difficult. It is
hard to believe that in the space of one generation attitudes and perceptions
have changed so much.
The young
Prince William was based at a farm in New South Wales so Princess Diana and
Prince Charles had to keep returning there every few days, which slowed down
their trip considerably. This trip has also been credited as starting
"Dianamania", where the Royal couple, and particularly Diana, drew huge
crowds. Prince Charles couldn't understand why Diana was so popular and it is
alleged by household staff that he resented her popularity. They were both unprepared
for the size of the crowds and the large numbers of photographers and Diana
found the whole experience quite unsettling.
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| Courtesy L J Holden |
After attending a ceremonial welcome at Government House in Wellington today, the Duke and Duchess of Cambridge have a day off tomorrow - presumably to get over any jet lag. They will then go on to attend 25 different engagements during their 20 day visit to New Zealand and Australia.
We wish them a safe and happy tour down under!
