Ngai Tahu give Prince Harry special kakahu
No amount of planning for Prince Harry’s visit to Southland could dampen the generosity of Southlanders.
Hundreds of people gathered at Invercargill Airport yesterday to catch a glimpse of the prince on his way to Stewart Island.
Ngai Tahu elder Cyril Gilroy from Waihopai Runaka, did not bat an eyelid when Harry commented on his kakahu (cloak) made from feathers.
‘‘When he came past and we hongied, he talked about the feathers [on the cloak] and he said, ‘I wouldn’t mind one of the those’, and I said jokingly ‘well I’ll give it to you’.’’
Gilroy conferred with other Ngai Tahu elders about whether he was allowed to give Harry the clock.
‘‘They looked at me and said ‘why not?’
‘‘So it was unplanned. I said ‘here you are, I told you, you’d get it’; it was just a spontaneous gesture from iwi.’’
Unaccustomed to southern generosity, Harry asked Gilroy if he could buy it from him.
The kakahu originally came from Christchurch.
‘‘It was one that we used in ceremonies,’’ Gilroy said.
The prince also got a bit more than he bargained for when he came across 68-year-old Yvonne Gawn on the barrier at the airport.
Gawn threw her arms around him and told him he was lovely, before three security personnel moved to intervene.
‘‘I lost it, I shook his hand and whispered in his ear ‘you’re lovely’, and he said thanks.’’
The prince asked Gawn if the weather in Invercargill was always this sunny, and she said it was.
A royalist, Gawn arrived at the airport at 9am yesterday to secure a good spot in the crowd.
Gawn was ecstatic with encounter.
‘‘I’m overwhelmed; I’ll be grinning for months,’’ she said.
Harry was officially welcomed to Southland by Invercargill Mayor Tim Shadbolt, a kapa haka and Ngai Tahu.
Shadbolt introduced Harry to a line of local dignitaries, and last but not least was Henry, the 100-year-old tuatara from Southland Museum and Art Gallery.
While Harry exchanged smalltalk with the reptile, Henry trusted him enough to perch on his arm.
Southland Museum and Art Gallery tuatara curator Lindsay Hazley said he gave Harry a brief lesson in tuataras before he put Henry on him.
‘‘I let him [Harry] touch him
her first so Henry didn’t hesitate to get on his arm.
‘‘He asked me about his teeth after that, and I said ‘ he could bite your finger off’ and he said ‘ now you tell me!’.’’
Henry handled his royal encounter a lot better than he thought he would, Hazley said.
‘‘They’re very sensitive to sound, kapa haka and the thumping of the floor upset him a little bit but he settled quickly.
‘‘As Harry got closer, he had a wee spasm. Harry asked me what happened and was he scared, and I said he might have been.
‘‘I didn’t want to keep getting him in and out of his box because sometimes he can be a bit stroppy, so he had to sit patiently on my knee.’’
Harry told Hazley he only knew a little bit about tuatara, but took on board Hazley’s tuatara lesson very well, he said.
For a special treat for Mother’s Day, Lara Taane took her daughter Molly to the airport early to stake out a place to see Harry.
This was not the first royal escapade for Taane and her friend Megan Dixon, and Dixon’s daughter Ella.
Dixon’s husband drove the group to Dunedin last year to meet William and Catherine, the Duke and Duchess of Cambridge.
‘‘We got a special wave and we want the same from Harry.’’