Kensington Palace released the official details for Will and Kate’s royal tour of Australia and New Zealand. And guess what… George is going! Of course he is. Was that really ever debated? I guess the palace was trying to play coy for months, but their efforts were a waste of time. We will see George about 6 times, getting on and off planes and at least one appearance in Oz and one in NZ.
The tour will be from April 7-25. The tour will begin in New Zealand on the 7th then they will travel to Australia on the 16th, they leave on the 25th. Free days include the 8th, 15th, and the 21st. Here is the official press release from KP; here is a detailed itinerary from Hello! You can read William’s private secretary Miguel Head’s remarks here—it is really long.
The itinerary does not include a ton of fancy receptions or state dinners. So I guess we won’t be getting a ton of royal jewelry after all. Well, we probably will, by way of broaches and other small bits, but tiaras are highly unlikely. I bet Kate’s sad. I’m kind of sad, I was hoping for some big royal jewelry.
The tour consists of a lot of low key “meet and greet” events which are designed so the Cambs can “shake hands with as many members of the public as possible”. That’s interesting. I tend to think it’s because they want to 1) assert their “low key”-ness and show how “modern” they are (which is a stupid idea, here’s an excellent Guardian article about the idea of royals being just like us), and 2) make nice with the people of Oz and NZ to ensure their loyalty and displace as much Republic support as possible. But who knows, maybe the “meet and greet” idea was Will and Kate’s and not thought up by the staff organizing the tour—ha, made myself laugh there a bit.
The tour party includes 12 people: Miguel Head, Kate’s private secretary, Rebecca Deacon, three press officers, a tour secretary, a personal assistant, a hairdresser, an orderly to manage logistics, Sir David Manning, and George’s nanny. No official dresser. As much as I groan about Kate having too many people around that she doesn’t need, in this instance, I think she does need a dresser. It’s an official royal tour, she needs to have someone taking care of the clothes so she doesn’t have to. But I guess for Kate her clothes are all that interest her. This tour is more a fashion show for her—and a chance to visit two countries she’s never been to before—more than anything else.
Here are the Daily Mail article, the Telegraph article, Onenews out of Nz, The Express article, and the BBC article about the tour.
Let’s hope waity is attired with underwear? Nobody wants a repeat of what
happened in Canada! I hope this tour goes without any mistakes. The royals
are taking a big chance with bill, who does not want be there! lazy does not
know where she is and the baby does not care where he is! ( just kidding)
I find it pathetic and stupid that the ” parents ” expect baby George to solve
their problems! It is unbelievable!
I’m wondering if we’ll see much of George. We’ve only seen photos of him on 3, maybe 4, occasions since his birth….leaving the hospital, at the Middleton home, and his christening. Number 4 would be the photos that may or may not be of George leaving the plane in the Caribbean. I think it may have been a stunt baby. Am I the only person who finds it strange that we can’t get a glimpse of him?
Unfortunately they have already had controversy as they wanted to visit the Maori King but Marae protocol requires 2 hours for an official welcome on to the Maori King’s Marae and the people organising the tour had only allowed for half that time. Palace officials know the time required and have usually allowed for the right amount of time so why has Kate and William’s tour not made allowances? Not very good planning and I’m sure The Queen will be surprised that Kate and William are not going to the Maori King’s marae at Turangawaewae. If Kate wanted to learn more about the people of New Zealand then this is a missed opportunity.