I am not a ‘royalist,’ and I don’t easily get sucked in by the visits of ‘dignitaries.’ Neither do I spit venom at the sight of flag-waving crowds; many of whom are in possession of the Union Jack version of the flag, or the happy faces lining the streets of the cities and towns lucky enough to receive the good-looking family from the extreme North.
I know that Face Book had all the usual comments pertaining to the’ royal leaches’ and many more comments. I was not taken in; indeed it quickly became apparent that a huge numbers of New Zealanders, some of them ‘new arrivals to our increasingly ‘non-British’ makeup were hugely enjoying the visit. Little girls dressed as princesses, throwing away the PC ideals that have plagued us for decades about gender equality and various other twists on the theme. Mothers giggled in anticipation of meeting the handsome ‘one day to be King.’
For ten days, New Zealand almost forget about the other ‘evils,’ besetting the world, as we cast ourselves back to a time gone by. For all of this happy welcoming to our shores of the Royal Couple, we paid a tiny NZ$1.2 million. It is pretty damn clear that this will more than come back to us in the form of huge publicity. There were very few overseas channels that I have access to that did not regularly show stunning pictures of New Zealand landscapes and no amount of money can beat that for publicity. Expect yet another jump in tourist visit.
Now, it’s the turn of our Aussie cousins. I bet they will be just as ‘taken,’ by the ‘we three.’
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