Constable Charlie Payne with Tai and Constable Paul Selby with Vance in 1981. Photo / Northern Advocate Archives
Constable Charlie Payne with Tai and Constable Paul Selby with Vance in 1981. Photo / Northern Advocate Archives
Former police dog handler Charles Payne is looking back at a career full of successful operations that more than once involved tracking offenders through Northland's bush and bringing them to justice.
But one of his most memorable operations was one that didn't go to plan and went down as an embarrassing yet remarkable moment in Northland police history.
It was April 1983. The Queen was visiting the Bay of Islands and as part of her busy tour through New Zealand, she had a secret day off on Motuarohia Island, then better known as Roberton Island.
Payne, his alsatian Tai, and police officers Harvey Fergusson, Lloyd Harris and Scoop Sterling were sent to Motuarohia on a fishing boat from Russell to clear the island of all people so that Her Majesty could enjoy her day in solitude.
"As the secret squad, our job was to stay out of sight," Payne recalled.
The secret squad were Constable Steve Wilson's men. Wilson also wrote about the encounter in the Whangārei Report.
For a few days, the group stayed put on the fishing boat anchored in the rough seas around Motuarohia on the other side of the island from where the Queen would stay.
On the day of her planned arrival, Payne and his colleagues saw yachties going ashore in the pouring rain prompting the squad to leave the vessel.
Because the Queen's presence was to be kept secret, Payne and his colleagues didn't reveal themselves as police officers.
"I put on a bush shirt, a pair of stubbies and jandals so they didn't know who we were," Payne said.
The rugged western end of Roberton/Motuarohia Island. Photo / Peter de Graaf
After the yachties left the island, the police officers - still in civil gear but armed - left for the Eagles Nest, a house on the edge of a 75m cliff that made it a perfect observation point.
"We weren't meant to do that because we weren't meant to show our presence but it was raining so bloody hard."
As the weather turned foul, the planners of the operation assumed the Queen's getaway trip was cancelled - but no one in the force had realised that Her Majesty and her party had long landed on Motuarohia.
Oblivious, Payne and his colleagues continued their operation, which at that point involved a few Lion Reds at the Eagles Nest.
Sterling, who had been in the force for longest, stood guard outside "because he was a goodie-good and didn't want to have a beer because we were naughty boys", Payne said.
Suddenly, Sterling radioed in, reporting movement in the nearby tea tree.
"We thought he was just doing that to rattle our dags. But Harvey [Fergusson] was a bit unsettled by what Scoop [Sterling] said so he goes to the door and opens it – and then shuts it very quickly and says, 'she is just outside!'."
Payne said he still wasn't convinced the Queen was within a few feet of them, believing that Fergusson was in on Sterling's joke, but Harris needed to know for sure.
He went to check the lawns around the property only to quickly back away into the bush bowing and muttering 'Sorry Ma'am'.
Frantically, Fergusson turned to Payne and asked: "What do we do?".
The only logical thing they could do - hide.
The island is located about 4km northeast of Russell. Photo / Peter de Graaf
"Lion Red would have been very pleased with me because I swept the last half of my can."
Payne grabbed the dog and his bag and with Fergusson ran upstairs. While his colleague went to a bathroom, Payne found a bedroom with a large wardrobe large enough to fit him and Tai.
"Of course, police dogs are not used to hiding in a wardrobe, they're used to find others in wardrobes," Payne said.
Waiting in the dark, Payne realised that he and Fergusson not only had left their empty beer cans on the table downstairs but also their radio, which was probably going off at that stage.
"Next thing, the door opens. It's Her Majesty the Queen, mate."
The Queen, reportedly in a raincoat and pink gumboots, spotted Payne right away and according to the dog handler she exclaimed, "They've even got a dog".
Payne was nervous about Tai's reaction to the Queen and vice-versa but lucky for the skilled dog-handler, Her Majesty famously took a liking to pooches and she immediately connected with the alsatian.
The Queen and her entourage left Payne in the bedroom to search the rest of the upstairs and finally found Fergusson, a 1.8m rifleman with a "big puku, a drooping moustache, wearing a bush singlet, boots and a side arm", Wilson wrote at the time, hiding behind a shower curtain.
"Are you hiding?" The Queen asked and according to Payne's recollection, Fergusson answered: "Yes, Ma'am. Well, you have found us. Now it's your turn to hide."
Her Majesty stayed for about 20 minutes in the Eagles Nest, talking with Payne about german shepherds and different dog breeds while petting Tai who was also sodden from the rain.
Her only complaint upon her departure was a little "phew" after taking a sniff of her hand that surely smelled like wet dog.
