Tauranga mum Lily Nicholl was giving birth to her own little princess as morning tea conversations revolved around the birth of a royal baby.
Only hours old, Emily Nicholl will be able to tell future friends she was born just hours after the future king of England.
Baby Emily arrived at 10.48am yesterday at Tauranga Hospital.
The royal baby, yet to be named, was born at 3.24am NZ time.
Ms Nicholl said she first went into labour on Monday afternoon.
Ms Nicholl said she had not planned to give birth around the same time as the Duchess of Cambridge but the arrival of the royal baby made her own pregnancy interesting.
As friends and family gathered at hospital, Mr Nicholl said there was a running joke through the morning as to who would arrive first in the world, his baby daughter or the royal baby. "We had the smartphones out and were keeping up to date with it. We were reading Twitter," he said.
"We followed [the royal birth]. It was interesting. We were thinking we might come first. Emily was three weeks early."
The news of the royal birth was not announced until 7.30am yesterday.
But despite the intense worldwide interest on the royal baby's arrival, Mr and Ms Nicholl were now more focused on other matters such as their toddler Gabriella and baby Emily.
