Platinum Jubilee Pageant. Photo / Julia McCarthy-Fox
For someone with my past life, following the Queen and royal family as a photographer, 2022 was always going to be a special year with the unprecedented Platinum Jubilee of HM Queen Elizabeth II.
After almost three years in my new home in Te Awamutu I had been waiting for our Covid restrictions to lift in order to visit the UK again with my wife Kathy.
We had a number of things that we needed to do and had planned our trip to include the weekend of jubilee celebrations planned in London.
Knowing that this coincided with Queen's Birthday weekend in New Zealand made it even more special as we knew that the celebrations would be shared across the world.
Arriving in London on June 1 we found a station street party taking place at Waterloo which started our visit in a very happy note before checking into our hotel.
Thursday, June 2 was the start of the four day weekend with Trooping the Colour moved from its traditional Saturday.
Having been on Horseguards Parade for the final rehearsal the previous week we had seen the ceremony itself at very close quarters, and this was about the processions and the balcony appearance.
I did not agree with it being incorporated with the other jubilee plans as I believe it is a stand alone event, as the Queen's official birthday parade it has nothing whatsoever to do with any jubilee, and as it works perfectly well each year it should not be interfered with. But I was not in charge, and interfered with it most certainly was, in a very detrimental way!
We left the hotel just after 5am and were only a five minute walk from The Mall. For the procession we stood where I have done for years, and in spite of the greatly restricted view due to extra press stands for the other events, plus the last minute arrival of approx 60 people directly in front of us I somehow managed to get a set of photos of the procession from my step stool.
Sadly Kathy had a very restricted view.
Then we were eventually allowed onto The Mall to join the crowd outside Buckingham Palace for the traditional balcony appearance.
As the Queen had not been part if the procession this year this was a particularly important part of the day for the many thousands of people present.
The numbers were so vast that the police had restricted access several hours earlier for safety but it was still very crowded, and this was the point at which combining Trooping with other events failed completely.
In preparation for the concert huge structures had been erected in front of the palace and for the majority of those there the balcony was not actually visible and their only view of HM was via a video screen.
There were a lot of disappointed people in the crowd.
I was able to see most if the family from my step stool but it was far from satisfactory and I was furious that such a long established tradition had been destroyed.
Fortunately the celebratory flypast was much more successful comprising 70 aircraft, some in a 70 formation, and ending with the famous Red Arrows leaving a trail of red, white and blue across the sky in their wake as they roared overhead and above the palace.
The beacon lighting in the evening was not visible to the public so we watched on television from our hotel before having an early night.
Day two of the celebrations was the service of Thanksgiving at St Paul's Cathedral.
Arriving before 5.30am meant there was plenty of room and I was pleased not to have needed to sleep out on the street, although some people had done so.
It takes more than this for me to sleep on the pavement now, although I have done it many times in the past.
Kathy wisely opted to stay at the hotel and watch on television as she was exhausted, and she soon spotted exactly where I was positioned as the coverage started.
We had arranged to meet up with TVNZ's Europe correspondent Daniel Faitaua the previous day, but due to a bad timing decision he and his team found themselves missing Trooping, as they were amongst the thousands trapped in Trafalgar Square, media accreditation no use to them at all, and had to record a slightly different report from the one they had planned!
This time we found each other, and I enjoyed a chat, with him perched on a borrowed ladder beside me as we sat in my position in the growing crowd. A snippet was used on the evening news and Te Awamutu got a mention!
It had already been announced that The Queen would not be attending the service, which was disappointing, as it was for her, but it was a fabulous chance to see and photograph the rest of the royal family, who were there in such numbers that many of them arrived by bus!
This was also used, along with the fleet of royal cars, to take them to The Guildhall for a lunch hosted by The Lord Mayor of London afterwards.
The atmosphere was warm and happy, and entirely right for the day although some people felt the need to boo the Prime Minister, which us par for the course at any event.
There was also a mixed reception for the Duke and Duchess of Sussex, appearing at their first royal event since their controversial interviews — the booing was not unexpected, but wasn't really necessary.
All in all it was a lovely celebratory morning in the sunshine, and, to me this was the key point of the weekend, it was just a shame the Queen was missing.
On our way home we visited some friends for a lovely jubilee afternoon tea in their garden.
On day three Her Majesty had been expected to attend The Derby. The only major race where she has never had a winner, this is a regular fixture in the Queen's diary, and I suspect that she was very disappointed to have to miss it.
Her official representative for the day was The Princess Royal, who arrived in procession down the racecourse with a small royal party of her immediate family and Princess Alexandra, who regularly attends with The Queen.
It was a chilly day with a biting wind at times, and there were plenty of hats taking off throughout the day, but the rain held off.
The planned parachute drop was a casualty of the weather for safety reasons, but the guard of honour of jubilee flags, and jockeys who had ridden there for HM in previous years, all clad in her distinctive purple and scarlet racing silks with gold braid, was an impressive sight by the winning post as the guest of honour arrived.
I have attended the Derby alongside The Queen for many years, and the atmosphere there without her is not the same and I doubt whether either she or I will return now.
The evening saw the televised concert from outside Buckingham Palace for which we did not go to London, although we probably should have done. We were exhausted and had never planned to go, but it seems to have been enjoyed by most who watched it worldwide.
The final big event of the weekend was the pageant featuring a cast of thousands and the gold state coach.
So it was another 5am start in order to secure a position on The Mall being mindful of the numbers on Thursday.
For most big royal events now there is a double row of barriers on the pavement to keep crowds back — this is not helpful for photos, so we had a position in mind to stand where this would not be the case.
Fortunately nobody was already there when we eventually arrived having been on a very long detour from the station as there were hoardings everywhere to create areas for the thousands of participants to gather in advance.
It proved to be pretty much the perfect spot and we had a fabulous view of the entire procession. Initially it was very bizarre the crowd around us was totally unresponsive, and rather than being surrounded by deafening cheering there was just silence as the military section of the parade passed.
Eventually people started to react to what they were watching, but it was a slow start indeed.
There were many and varied participants in the pageant and it was an enjoyable couple if hours as it all passed by.
For me the highlight was the gold state coach right at the beginning — using modern technology, the fact that the coach was empty did not matter, as we appeared to be passed by Her Majesty herself in her Coronation robes — very clever and highly effective.
Another highlight was watching, on one if the screens, as young Prince Louis scrambled onto the lap of Prince Charles in the royal box and was bounced on his knee in a hug as the music played.
For the finale the crowds were gradually allowed onto The Mall to move towards the palace with the huge stages outside.
Here all the celebrities who had been part of the procession were gathered on a side stage whole Ed Sheeran performed directly in front of the palace gates.
By this time a lot of the structures that had blocked people's view on Thursday had been removed and the crowd was allowed to fill the space entirely — and then it happened.
What the crowd had wanted but not been promised — The Queen herself!
Suddenly the doors onto the famous palace balcony opened and there she was, clad in green and accompanied by her immediate successors and family.
It was one if those moments that brings tears to your eyes. The roar from the crowd was deafening, and there is nothing more rousing than singing the national anthem, along with a huge crowd of people, and her great grandchildren on the balcony beside her, directly to the Queen — it was what I had hoped would happen but had never been officially listed.
The Queen on the balcony was the perfect end to the celebrations — after all it was all about her!
She is our Platinum Queen and we will never see her like again.
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