Will Harry and Meghan attend Hawke's Bay royal A&P show?

The Queen at Nelson Park in Hastings in 1986, the last Royal visit to the Hawke's Bay twin cities. Photo / File

Newlyweds Prince Harry and Meghan Markle could be on their way to Hawke's Bay for this year's Royal Hawke's BayA&P Show.

The possibility comes with speculation of a tour to New Zealand, Australia, Fiji and Tonga in October.

One focus of the tour could be the Invictus Games for injured service men and women in Sydney on October 20-27, immediately after the show in Hastings on October 17-19.

Hawke's Bay was made the home of the royal show for three years in 2015 and the Royal Agricultural Society will decide next month whetherto extend the arrangement.

No member of the British royal family has been at a royal show in New Zealand since a visit to Christchurch by Princess Anne in 2008, although Prince Charles and his wife, Camilla, attended the 2012 Christchurch A&P Show.

Hawke's Bay has not been on a royal tour itinerary since the Queen opened the new Wairoa bridge in 1990.

It's also now 32 years since any royal tour came to Napier and Hastings — the February 1986 visit with the Queen and the Duke of Edinburgh each cloaked with korowai at Nelson Park, the sportsground later redeveloped as a shopping centre.

There have been hints in the past that the royal family wanted to maintain a more regular connection with the royal show in New Zealand, and Prince Harry's dad, Prince Charles, has an extra interest in his role as Patron of the worldwide Campaign for Wool.

Acknowledging that if there had been any official discussions everyone would be sworn to secrecy pending the official announcements, Hawke's Bay A&P Society and Hawke's Bay Showgrounds Tomoana general manager Sally Jackson was excited by the possibilities so early into the job she started less than three months ago.

"Wouldn't that be fantastic?" she said as she thought back to her only previous brush with royalty "back in my waitressing days" in her native Wales. She said it was at least 25 years ago when she was at university in Cardiff and worked for a company that hired out waitresses.

"I turned up and Prince Charles (the Prince of Wales) was there," she said. "It was quite a select function, only about 100 people, and about five waitresses.

"We would be very proud for the royal couple to come be at our show" she said. "We would make them most welcome."

Napier Mayor Bill Dalton was quick to recognise the possibilities, with a letter to "the powers that be" being prepared by mid-afternoon to advise of the area's interest in hosting the new Duke and Duchess of Sussex.

While one report yesterday suggested the couple's visit to New Zealand would be more likely to be after the Sydney visit, thereby missing the show, Mr Dalton said: "We are very hopeful they'll include Hawke's Bay in the itinerary. It would certainly be overdue, but at the end of the day the decisions are all made by Internal Affairs or whoever."

Hastings Mayor Sandra Hazlehurst, in her job less than six months, was yesterday afternoon unable to be contacted for comment.