Will the bachelor Prince - fourth in line to the throne - prove as popular with New Zealanders as he has with Australians? Photo / AP
Will the bachelor Prince - fourth in line to the throne - prove as popular with New Zealanders as he has with Australians? Photo / AP
The People’s Prince, His Royal Ginga-ness... Prince Harry will put a down-to-earth spin on the royal family when he arrives in New Zealand next week. Billy Adams reports from Australia.
He's gone from teenage tearaway to People's Prince. In Britain, Harry is the most popular member of a royal family transformed since the death of his tragic and much-adored mother.
Spellbound crowds who braved dismal weather in Canberra provided Kiwis with a glimpse of what to expect when the younger brother of a future king touches down in Wellington next Saturday .
The warm smiles and easy-going demeanour remind palace-watchers of the late Diana, who was immortalised as the People's Princess after the infamous 1997 car crash in a Paris tunnel.
"Harry is his mother's son," says one. "Like Diana, he has what all royals crave - the common touch. Even more important, he comes across as totally genuine." It's a far cry from a young prince who dressed up as a Nazi and held wild parties that earned him nicknames like "His Royal High-ness" and "Hashish Harry". "How would you like to come back to my palace for a drink?" was reportedly his favourite chat-up line.
But the wayward adolescent who got into fights with paparazzi is very different from the combat-hardened Apache helicopter pilot who will tour New Zealand next week.
"The army was the making of the man," one former member of the royal household told biographer Penny Junor. "The man was there, he just needed to be moulded ... there is no doubt he matured quickly in the forces and prospered. He loved it because he could be one of the 'normal' guys. He's an absolutely natural soldier, a natural leader."
The Prince throws himself into a game of wheelchair Aussie rules during a visit to Darwin last month. Photo / Getty Images
For most of the last month Harry has been training with the Australian Defence Force (ADF) - the first British royal to do so since the two countries started regular military exchanges in 1976.
Captain Wales - as he is known in the military - spent the first fortnight in the Northern Territory, where he teamed up with indigenous Norforce soldiers to visit a remote Aboriginal community. He also joined the 1st Aviation Regiment in Darwin and flew a Tiger Armed Reconnaissance Helicopter. Kensington Palace describes the secondment - which resumed this week after Harry returned from Anzac centenary commemorations in Europe - as "challenging and hectic".
The 30-year-old is currently training alongside SAS troops in Western Australia and will also spend time with the 6th Aviation Regiment in Sydney before flying across the Tasman. His decade of military service concludes next month, and it's thought Harry will focus on children's charity work in Africa, and helping injured military personnel. In 2013 he trekked for two weeks with wounded troops to the South Pole.
Harry has proven himself as a combat-hardened Apache helicopter pilot. Photo / AP
Unlike the upcoming packed schedule in New Zealand, Harry's present deployment has contained only one public appearance - when he laid a wreath at the Australian War Memorial's Tomb of the Unknown Soldier in Canberra.
The hundreds of well-wishers who turned out in pouring rain to greet him were testament to the current popularity of the British monarchy.
Almost two decades after public anger over Diana's death put the institution's future in doubt, her two sons have spearheaded a dramatic revival in fortunes.Public interest in the arrival of the Duke and Duchess of Cambridge's second child is at fever pitch. Last year's tour Downunder by William, Kate and baby Prince George coincided with a slump in Australian support for a republic. Just four in 10 people backed the change - the lowest level in three decades.
Will the bachelor Prince - fourth in line to the throne - prove as popular with New Zealanders?
Prince Harry as best man at older brother William's marriage to Kate Middleton. Photo / AP
If the Windsors could produce someone approaching an underdog, it's him. Sometimes cast - like his mother - as a "black sheep" or outsider, he is reputed to prize anonymity as much as the comradeship he enjoyed with other soldiers on two tours of duty in Afghanistan.
Staff at bars Harry frequents in London variously describe their favourite royal as down-to-earth, unaffected, ordinary.
In Canberra, he made a beeline for and high-fived a young boy behind the crash barriers who was holding a placard that said: "Red heads RULE!"
Ethan Toscan said the Prince complimented his sign. "He said it must be a pleasure to be a redhead, and such a privilege."
According to Prime Minister John Key, Harry has asked to meet a wide range of Kiwis during his first trip to New Zealand, and the itinerary reflects several opportunities to get up close and personal.
He starts the week in Wellington - where he'll watch the Hurricanes host the Sharks in the Super 15 - before heading down to Stewart Island for two days. That will be followed by an inspection of the reconstruction of Christchurch, before he joins army personnel at Linton Military Camp and visits Whanganui's Putiki Marae. The week ends in Auckland, where Harry will play five-a-side soccer in front of hundreds of fans at The Cloud on the waterfront.
Only then will it be known if he has captured Kiwi hearts, and if New Zealand has captured his.
