A Kiwi escape in the sun fit for future king
It’s been a grim year for the royals and Prince Charles is getting away from it all to NZ, writes Cherie Howie
The kids are scrapping. The daughterin-law’s in the tabloids — again. Dad crashed the car. Little brother was way too close to a sex offender. And the weather’s turned cold and drab.
So why not jump on a plane (no sardine class, thanks) and travel as far as you can before you find yourself coming back?
The future king, Prince Charles, and Camilla, Duchess of Cornwall, are coming to New Zealand for their third official visit, before the prince pops over to Tuvalu and the Solomon Islands on the way home.
They’ll arrive, most likely, in the sunshine, with fine weather and a high of 22C forecast in Auckland tomorrow afternoon, when the couple and various hangers-on land at Base Whenuapai in West Auckland.
No doubt there’ll be a nice welcome with smiles, handshakes and hongi. What a nice change it’ll be from home where, let’s face it, it’s been a bit of a year for the royal household.
Only a few weeks ago, Prince Charles was reported by The Sun to be “livid” about the growing feud between his two sons, princes William and Harry.
And it’s a rift that’s real — Prince Harry confirmed so when a documentary crew followed the Duke and Duchess of Sussex on their recent African tour, saying the pair were on “different paths at the moment”, although he also said they’d “always be brothers”.
In September, documents released by the UK’s Companies House revealed Harry and Meghan’s names had been removed from the joint charitable endeavour they were involved in with William and Kate.
The new parents of wee Archie have also turned heads since the 6-month-old’s birth, grabbing headlines by taking control of how quickly the baby’s arrival would be announced, where the first official photo would be taken, and refusing to reveal the names of Archie’s godparents. All bucked royal practice.
The headlines continued throughout the year, most pointedly with criticism of the couple’s climate change clanger — announcing, for the planet, they’d have only two kids, and then jumping on private jets to exotic locales.
Immediately after, the Duke and Duchess of Cambridge, and their kids, just happened to join the masses on a budget airline flight.
In the most recent headline, it was reported yesterday the trio would ditch a royal Christmas to spend the festive season with the Duchess of Sussex’s mother.
Prince Andrew has also been causing royal headaches, after a woman accused late billionaire and convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein of forcing her to have sex with the prince when she was 17. The Duke of York denies the allegation, but that hasn’t stopped an onslaught of damaging stories.
Even the most senior royals couldn’t stay out of trouble — the Prince of Wales’ father, 98-year-old Prince Philip, crashed into a car containing two women and a baby near Sandringham Estate in January. One of the women, who had a wrist broken, later complained no one from the royal family had been in touch after the crash, and that the elderly prince was “highly insensitive and inconsiderate” when spotted driving without a seatbelt 48 hours later.
So, yeah. Who can blame our future king wanting to see out what he might describe as his own annus horribilis in the warmth of the South Pacific?