The NZ Herald was one of the few media outlets given a quick tour of St George's Chapel, just hours before the committal service for Queen Elizabeth II. Photo / PA
The NZ Herald was one of the few media outlets given a quick tour of St George's Chapel, just hours before the committal service for Queen Elizabeth II. Photo / PA
NZ Herald's Adam Pearse reporting from Windsor Castle, London
It took just minutes for a 70-year monarch to disappear, the velvet-covered catafalque supporting her coffin sinking beneath the floor of a chapel she will never arise from.
And yet, the legacy of Queen Elizabeth II will live long in the memories of millions - perhaps billions - who watched the most significant memorial proceedings of a lifetime.
Many will remember her state funeral - thousands of world leaders, dignitaries and royalty filing Westminster Abbey before military representatives from across the globe paid homage to their fallen commanding officer by escorting her to the Wellington Arch.
But it was the committal service at her beloved Windsor Castle that really captured what has been lost - a mother, a grandmother, an animal lover, an inspiration for women the world over.
It was a perfect farewell for a person who honoured the commitment to service she made at 21 years old, but one she never allowed to erode her joyful, inquisitive spirit.
The NZ Herald was one of a select group of media from across the globe to be invited to report within Windsor Castle throughout the day.
It was a sombre scene inside the chapel as the coffin was slowly lowered into the royal vault ahead of burial. Photo / PA
The notoriety of such a position was diminished somewhat by the designated media area, a space configured to resemble a "slightly eerie exam hall" as noted by one of His Majesty's press staff, complete with ink-stained plastic chairs and tables with uneven legs.
Nevertheless, the journalists' appetite for access was somewhat sated by a tour of St George's Chapel, where the public would say their final goodbyes to their Queen at the committal service in only a few hours' time.
Walking towards the chapel's side entrance, grounds staff equipped with brooms and scoopers frantically search for debris to remove from the footpaths.
Flowers adorn the lawns in the yard - it's understood they were sourced from hundreds of truckloads of floral tributes removed every night from the road leading to the castle, the Long Walk.
Hundreds of truckloads of flowers were taken from the Long Walk leading up to Windsor Castle and placed on the lawns of Castle Hill. Photo / AP
We step into the chapel and along the centre aisle. Desperate to consume information during a fleeting visit prevents many, including myself, from recognising we are standing where royalty will soon stand to farewell one of their own.
Chapel chapter clerk Charlotte Manley runs through the plan for the service. As someone so accustomed to its history, it isn't until she's questioned when she clarifies there are almost a dozen sovereign tombs in the main chapel.
Approaching the quire entrance, Manley references Sir William Henry Harris, a former chapel organist who is believed to have taught then Princess Elizabeth the piano.
Casting her eyes to the ceiling, she explains the late Queen's love of music and how, as a young woman, she would sit in the choir lofts to listen to Harris' music, particularly at Christmas time.
The sense of family was much more evident at the committal service, the Prince of Wales speaking here with his son Prince George. Photo / AP
Journalists, prohibited from bringing recording devices, rush to scribble notes as Manley recites the service with impeccable recall.
Asked how many times the service had been rehearsed, Manly responds dryly; "Enough".
With our time in the chapel almost up, the group hurries into the quire where the Queen's coffin will be placed on a catafalque covered in velvet.
Banners of Knights of the Garter, the most senior order of knighthood in the British honours system, hang high above the pews and hundreds of brass plates denoting the knights' history line the walls.
Perhaps invoking the Commonwealth spirit, Manley references New Zealand deceased Knight of the Garter Sir Edmund Hillary, explaining how banners are returned to a knight's family upon death - the exception being George VI, whose daughter the late Queen Elizabeth requested it remain in the chapel.
The coffin of Queen Elizabeth II was carried on a state gun carriage from Westminster Abbey to Wellington Arch on Hyde Park corner. Photo / Reuters
As soon as it began, the tour was over, providing only a taster of the chapel's significance.
Watching the funeral and subsequent procession through the streets of London was a conflicting experience.
Pomp and ceremony are in the Brits' wheelhouse and they do it well.
But seeing her atop a gun carriage marching between military regiments felt oddly reminiscent to the shows of force commonly associated with authoritarian regimes like Russia or North Korea.
While it was a necessary nod to her role as commander-in-chief, it didn't tell your everyday citizen who the Queen was.
The military might of the Commonwealth was on show during the official procession after the funeral. Photo / AP
Fortunately, the committal service answered that question in spades.
From the outset, it was a more intimate affair. The hearse carrying the coffin crawled up the Long Walk flanked by mobs of mourners almost within touching distance.
The naval, army and air force officers that led the Queen along the procession to Wellington Arch were replaced by members of the Royal household.
Inside the castle gates, the Queen's pony - Emma - stood at attention. Her tail flicking every so often, Emma took a step back as the cortege rolled by, perhaps remembering only a few months back when she and her 96-year-old owner would ride together.
Emma, the monarch's fell pony, stands to attention as the coffin of Queen Elizabeth rolls past. Photo / AP
Capturing the Queen's love of animals wouldn't be complete without corgis. Reportedly owning up to 60 in her life, two were on show on Monday - Sandy and Muick.
For the Queen, the chapel held many great memories as it did dark ones. The funerals of her father, grandfather and great-grandfather all took place at Windsor, along with the 30-person farewell to her late husband Duke of Edinburgh Prince Philip.
But it was also where her grandson Prince Harry was baptised and then later married.
And as she descended to the royal vault under the tearful eyes of her family, she was to be reunited with her family, a homecoming.
Reportedly owning up to 60 in her life, two royal corgis were on show on Monday - Sandy and Muick. Photo / AP
The world has thanked and expressed gratitude for the late Queen's service and rightly so.
But it will be Elizabeth the grandmother, the horse rider, that her subjects will remember and grieve above all else.
