Editorial: Another bypass by the royals

Prince Harry will not be stopping by Hawke's Bay on his tour through New Zealand.

There is a difference between being a monarchist and simply wanting to see a king, queen, prince or princess - something to tell the grandkids.

Thus the Hawke's Bay twin cities of Napier and Hastings have a right to feel affronted that Prince Harry won't be passing by these ways during his New Zealand tour in May.

He has got a few kilometres to cover - the 1264km from Stewart Island to Auckland, and spots in between such as Christchurch, Wellington, Linton, and Whanganui.

But it's now a fair old while since members of the Royal House of Windsor happened upon the Heretaunga Plains.

It is 29 years since Queen Elizabeth II and Prince Phillip were in the area. New Zealand Post did its best to make it look more recent by using a photo of the couple in Hastings, with the Queen wearing a korowai presented to her in the city, on a $1.40 stamp in 2002 to mark the Diamond Jubilee of her ascension to the throne in 1952.

The only other time the Queen and the Prince, the children, or even the mokopuna, have been in Hawke's Bay since then was in 1990 when Queen Elizabeth dropped into Wairoa to open the main highway bridge built to replace the previous structure swept away in Cyclone Bola in March 1988.

We don't expect to see her here again. She'll be 89 next week. Travel is not as high on the agenda as in such times as the first visit to New Zealand by a reigning British monarch in 1953 to the Queen's 10th and most recent visit here in 2002.

New Zealand has since hosted Prince William pre-betrothal and later as the Duke of Cambridge with Catherine, the Duchess. Prince Charles and Camilla have been to our shores and so has Prince Edward.

Perhaps they don't like our wine, or maybe they miss Marineland. But a visit to Hawke's Bay is overdue.