Charming Prince takes next big step

Not to brag, but Wills charmed us long before he ever charmed Kate Middleton.

Dressed in peach smock and nappies, crawling across a blanket on the lawn at Auckland's Government House in pursuit of that Kiwiana icon, the Buzzy Bee.

It was April 1983 and Prince Charles had come to New Zealand because that was his job.

He'd brought his young wife, Diana, because he'd promised us he would.

And he'd brought 10-month-old Prince William, as a special surprise.

In the days before the family had boarded the plane to New Zealand, William had taken his first faltering steps on hands and knees but, in a masterstroke of public relations, his parents, nannies and royal minders had kept his crawling under wraps from the prowling Brit and Aussie tabloid hacks - only to reveal it in the healthy autumn sunlight of the Empire's farthest colony.

Lady Norma Beattie, the wife of Governor-General Sir David Beattie, hosted the royals for their two-week stay. Quickly, she found, the formality of the relationship dissolved into a relaxed friendship.

Prince Charles had already visited in 1981, just after announcing his engagement to kindergarten teacher Lady Diana Spencer.

The excitement that greeted William and Kate's engagement this week is only a pale reflection of that which had greeted his father and mother 29 years earlier. Diana's sapphire-and-diamond engagement ring was quickly mass-produced in cheap form and sold across Britain for £8 (then, $18).

"It wasn't love at first sight, but a gradual process," Charles said, in his characteristically dry and bookish manner - before underscoring his words by leaving Diana and flying off to New Zealand the following month.

Staying in Wellington with Sir David and Lady Beattie, they sympathised with him at having to leave his new fiancee behind.

He replied: "I promise that after we've been married, and we've got the opportunity, I will bring her back to see you all because I think you should know her and she know you."

He meant the people of New Zealand, says Lady Beattie, and he was true to his word.

Only a few months later, the couple married in the biggest international TV spectacle the world had seen. The following year, William was born. And in April 1983, the Prince of Wales arrived back here with wife and son in tow.

Lady Beattie recalls: "Charles asked my husband, could he find them a house for them to be as a family? He sent back a message within 24 hours - they could have Auckland Government House, which suited them very well.

"Diana liked to swim. Not that our pool was big enough for that, but there was an arrangement for her to go swimming every day at someone's private pool - I can't remember where it was."

Lady Beattie met the family in the entrance foyer of Government House in Auckland.

"Prince Charles was coming down the staircase with William in his arms," she recalls. "We greeted them and he said, 'Oh, would you like to hold him?' And I said, 'Yes, I'd love to', and it was a natural feeling.

"I held him and felt his robust arms and legs - he was a beautiful child. I felt close to them, and I remember that vividly."

THE IMAGE imprinted on all our memories could have been very different. Instead of a Buzzy Bee, William was nearly photographed with a toy rabbit in an All Black's jersey.

The legend is that the Buzzy Bee was given to the young prince by a gruff but friendly TVNZ cameraman. Not true.

Cameraman Bruce Adams says the images of him presenting the Buzzy Bee to William were, in fact, staged for the cameras.

"Government House had the Buzzy Bee - we just used it," Adams reveals. "I was just a cameraman on the job."

The truth was that Lady Beattie had prepared a nursery for William, and chosen some toys for him to play with. One was a rabbit with a black No 5 jersey - Colin Meads' number. Another was the Buzzy Bee, a hand-me-down from her son Simon who was at school and too old for it.

"Buzzy Bees don't get a tremendous amount of use," she says. "They get passed on. Children grow so quickly.

"But that seemed to be the one they chose to take out on the lawn when they were photographed, to show that William was crawling. And it started the whole thing back up again, because Buzzy Bee sales had been a bit slow, I think. It was reintroduced to the country, which was good."

Fortunate, really. Lady Beattie doubts that Colin Meads' rugby career could have sustained the same resurgence as the Buzzy Bee.

SIR DAVID BEATTIE died in 2001, but his wife has stayed in touch with the Royals.

She grieved at Diana's death in 1997. "It was very sad, such a sad waste, because she had such great potential. She loved people. She was wonderful with people."

Yet there's something of the Queen of Hearts in Diana's oldest son. "I think he's got a wonderful smile, which she had. And he's very animated, which she was. I think there's a lot of her in him."

Now, William has presented his mother's familiar sapphire-and-diamond ring to his betrothed, and the British bookies are offering short odds on a July 2011 wedding date.

Lady Beattie will be sending her best wishes: "It's a very happy thing," she says. "They've known each other for quite a while, which is always an advantage, isn't it? Of course, it won't be an easy role by any measure, but I'm sure she'll cope with it very well."

A July wedding date would give the couple time for a a honeymoon, before travelling south to the last outpost of Empire - for the Rugby World Cup.

After all William, who never misses an opportunity to cheer on England at the World Cup, has already indicated he'd like to attend this one.

Surely he won't want to repeat his dad's mistake, by leaving the missus at home.

- Additional reporting Kieran Nash