Prince winds up NZ tour

At the Auckland War Memorial Museum yesterday the Prince wore a kahuweka and piupiu, watched by Waitara weaver Whero Bailey. Picture / Greg Bowker

Prince Charles was welcomed to a primary school by young students in Auckland today before planting a tree in one of the last official functions of his five-day visit to New Zealand.

He planted the tree at Mountain View Primary School in the Auckland suburb of Mangere Bridge before flying to Fiji early in the afternoon.

His New Zealand visit has mostly been without controversy, although two bare-breasted protesters in Wellington made headlines in New Zealand and England.

One of the arrested said she was protesting against colonialism, while the other was apparently angry that a breast-screening van had been removed from Civic Square for the royal visit.

A handful of protesters also greeted the prince when he arrived at Auckland War Memorial Museum yesterday to view an exhibition of traditional Maori and contemporary weaving.

There he donned a cloak of albatross feathers, only days after making an impassioned plea to save the giant ocean travellers during his visit to the albatross colony on Otago's Taiaroa Head, the only mainland albatross colony in the world.

At the display it was quickly pointed out none of the endangered birds had suffered any harm for the cloak. The feathers were all collected from a nesting colony.

The visit to the bird colony was one of the success stories of the prince's New Zealand visit for conservationists.

His comments about the threat to the huge birds and still and movie footage of the visit went around the world.

As he squatted near a bird with a young fluffy chick the prince wondered aloud if it would take a "dodo-like disappearance of this noble winged creature" to awaken people to the threat to the seabirds, which fly vast distances around the world.

Earlier in the day after inspecting a guard at the air force's Whenuapai air base, Prince Charles attended a luncheon to launch a 10-year strategy for the New Zealand branch of the Prince's Trust, a charitable organisation set up to help at-risk youth.

The luncheon was protester-free with two English women bearing signs saying "Welcome to my future King" and "Best wishes to you and Camilla," a reference to his marriage to Camilla Parker-Bowles next month.

Throughout his trip the prince had been congratulated on his coming marriage, confusing some royal tour reporters from England who had anticipated there would be more interest and more controversy in New Zealand.

The wedding controversy still raged in England but New Zealanders appeared to have moved on and wished him well, said one of the English reporters.

An Internal Affairs spokesman said today the visit had gone 'very smoothly'.

Today after planting the tree at the school Prince Charles will open the Potter Children's Gardens at the Botanic Gardens in south Auckland before his motorcade takes him to Auckland International Airport.

He will be farewelled by Governor General Dame Silvia Cartwright and Prime Minister Helen Clark before heading to Fiji for a short visit on his way back to Britain.

- NZPA