The Queen and Wairoa Mayor Cliff Owen during the pōwhiri in Wairoa in 1990. Photo / NZME
The Queen and Wairoa Mayor Cliff Owen during the pōwhiri in Wairoa in 1990. Photo / NZME
Royal tours of New Zealand were big moments for the nation's children.
They got to get out of the classroom, sometimes for the whole day.
If the Queen was in town the whole school might walk down to the big park, two-by-two, holding hands, to sit on the grass andwait, row-by-row, school by school, until the Queen and Prince Philip arrived.
There were 46 towns and cities on the Coronation tour of December-January 1953-1954, so everyone got to see them.
The 1983-1989 Mayor of Napier, David Prebensen, with the Queen at the War Memorial Centre on Marine Parade in 1986. Photo / NZME
If the Queen wasn't in town, but not too far away, they might have the whole day off school and go to see the Queen with Mum and Dad.
The most memorable in Hawke's Bay is now the most recent, 22 years ago on February 7, 1990, when the Queen was in New Zealand for both the Commonwealth Games in Auckland and to help mark the New Zealand sesqicentennial – 150 years since the signing of the Treaty of Waitangi.
But there was another purpose, the opening of a new State Highway 2 bridge over the Wairoa River, with northern Hawke's Bay rolling into town en masse in a symbolic closing of the geographical chasm that had existed since the previous large, concrete bridge had been destroyed in Cyclone Bola during March 6-8, 1988.
The meet and greet in Napier during the 1986 visit. Photo / NZME
Mayor Cliff Owen, who'd served through the Bola calamity, was there with the mayoral chains, a common feature of civic welcomes for royalty, and the headline read: "Queen unites Bola-hit town."
Large-scale civic welcomes, of the type scene for the Coronation tour in December-January 1953-54 were major events typical of the post-war era in which the reign of Elizabeth R was established. The connections with the old country were strong, the baby boom was in its infancy and families did a lot together.
A tricky moment as the Queen's skirt starts to lift in the breeze at Hawke's Bay Airport in 1963. Photo / Chris Geddis
For many who were young at the time, the memory can be blurred by what were called Vice-Regal visits, by the Governors-General of their time, the Queen's official representatives in the colony. People like Sir Bernard Fergusson, aka Baron Ballantrae, who served in 1962-1967, and Sir Arthur Porritt, the first New Zealand-born appointee and otherwise known as the bronze medallist in the 1924 Olympic Games 100 metres, the race immortalised in the movie Chariots of Fire.
Or was it the welcome to the 1965 Springboks, the Beatles, or President Lyndon Johnson, or the parades, of which there were many?
Invariably, the children of the civic dignitaries came close to meeting royalty, but a moment stands out for Napier City councillor Ronda Chrystal, granddaughter of former mayor and harbour board chairman Ron Spriggs.
Meeting young people was a focal point of the Queen's walkabouts in the town and city centres. Photo / NZME
Her mum recalls having her hand shaken in 1993 by the Queen as she left the Masonic Hotel, where the hotel still celebrates the existence of the room where the couple stayed.
Naturally Ron Spriggs had met the Queen, and was stunned years later to greet her as she stepped onto the wharf in Napier, shook his hand again, and was heard to say: "I've met you before."
The visit in 1953 stood out for the ceremony at McLean Park, but also the presence of shearer Godfrey Bowen, which leads to my own experience.
That was February 1963 when the family boarded the special train from Masterton to Hutt Valley where there was a huge public welcome, in the rain, at Fraser Park.
The Napier Daily Telegraph's record of the Royal visit to Wairoa in 1990 to Open a bridge built to replace that destroyed in Cyclone Bola two years earlier. Photo / NZME
It featured a Royal Command Golden Shears, with a six-stand shearing board set up in the park for just the top six shearers for a quick contest staged because the Queen hadn't been able to include Masterton in the tour.
Napier man Mark Scullin recalls the 1970 tour for the royal visit to the skating rink on Marine Parade. He was about 15 at the time, and watched national champion local skaters Peter McArthur and Anne Gillett perform for the Queen and Prince Philip.
"When the Queen went into the skating rink, I got to about eight feet away," he says. "I just ogled her, I couldn't believe how short she was."
A welcome to the now-gone Nelson Park in Hastings in 1986. Photo / NZME
Yes, the Queen was not tall, 5ft 4in, or 1.63 metres at the time of her coronation. Otherwise he better remembered the people on the roller skates: "They did a manoeuvre called the 'Death Spiral' flawlessly.
Napier City councillor Maxine Boag was perhaps showing early signs of her interest in civic affairs and infrastructure, with one of her abiding memories from the 1953 tour, when she was 6, being also about a bridge.
The bridge "by the works" had been painted, but just on the inside.
"We were told it was painted because the Queen was going to be driving on it," she said. "That image has stuck with me."
Commemorations planned in Hawke's Bay highlight the breadth of respect for the Queen – from the tolling of the Waiapu Cathedral Bells 96 times from midday on Friday, to the jockeys planning to wear black armbands at the races in Hastings on Saturday.
The visit to Marineland in 1970. Photo / NZME
The Cathedral is open for everyone who would like to mark their respects for Her Majesty by signing a tribute book, and the public are also invited to light a candle or offer a prayer, and a civic service will be held in the Cathedral later in the month.
The Thoroughbred Racing industry will acknowledge Her Majesty the Queen's passing at its two race meetings on Saturday, and a moment's silence will be observed at 11.30am at Hastings and Ruakaka.
The Queen was the Patron of the New Zealand Thoroughbred Breeders' Association, opening their Ellerslie office during her 1990 visit to New Zealand.
