“There are three key days,” says Mortimer.
“The 6th, 7th and 8th of May. The big one will happen on the 6th at 10pm New Zealand time, when we’ll have the two to three-hour Coronation event. During this, we’re going to see key parts of the Coronation ceremony after a smaller procession from Westminster Abbey. This will include the oath, the anointing, the investiture, the homage and, of course, the final, larger Coronation procession. That’s when people will see Charles and Camilla in their crowns in the golden carriage.”
The days that follow will then also include a series of scheduled events, including the Big Lunch and the Big Help Out. Aotearoa has also played its part by gifting King Charles III $1m worth of trees in acknowledgement of his long legacy of raising awareness of climate change.
This is a notable departure from the more ostentatious gifts given to previous kings, but at least we can rest assured that this one won’t face the same fate as the three-kilogram gold nugget given to King George V in 1911. Senior NZ Herald writer Kim Knight investigated the backstory of this nugget and uncovered a cold case mystery that continues to baffle people around the world. After its discovery in 1909, the nugget was sold to a group of men who bought it on behalf of a local hospital and then toured the country with it.
“You can look at the old newspaper records and you can see it’s in Whanganui, it’s in Auckland, it’s in Wellington, Christchurch. It always seems to be in pubs, and the pubs always seem to report really good takings that day.”
The nugget would eventually be acquired by the government, which then gave it to King George V.
“It gets to London and then we don’t know what happened to it next, except [there are] all these newspaper stories that say it had been melted down and made into a royal tea set.”
For more details on this fascinating story and what you need to know for this week’s Coronation, listen to the full episode of The Front Page.
