By Cheryl Norrie, DPA/Wellington
The duchess of Cambridge yesterday attended a pretend tea party with a 6-year-old “rainbow princess” at a children’s hospice in the central North Island.
Kate was visiting Rainbow Place in Hamilton, meeting families at the hospice which helps children who have life-limiting health conditions as well as those who have experienced the loss of a loved one.
Dressed in a green zip-front coat and black high-heels, Kate sat down with Bailey Rupe at a table laid for a children’s tea party.
Bailey and brother Te Waraki Rupe, aged 10, visit Rainbow Place to help deal with their mother’s terminal cancer. “My mum is dying and we don’t want her to die,” Bailey said.
Te Waraki, dressed as Flash Gordon with the word ROYAL shaved into his hair, said visiting Rainbow Place really helped.
“There should be more places like this,” Kate told the children.
“I’m sure you’re all going through difficult times and so it’s really good to have a place like this, I’m sure, to be able to talk about your feelings and to meet other people who are going through the same thing.”
The duchess was invited to join the children for a Mad Hatter’s tea party held in a giant Scandinavian tepee outside the hospice, where guests were greeted by Alice, the Mad Hatter and the White Rabbit and able to dine on flowerpots of sweet chocolate mud, crispy chicken lollypops and jellied eyeballs.
Kate has ties with children’s hospices in Britain and is understood to be keenly interested in learning more about palliative care.
Hospice chief executive Craig Tamblyn said the event had been an uplifting experience for everyone.
“It was a special day not just for me but for the children and the family members. She had an absolute interest in everyone she spoke to,” he said.
Kate’s husband William was given a tour of local aircraft manufacturer Pacific Aerospace. He briefly climbed into the cockpit of a plane and watched a flying demonstration, but did not take to the air himself.
The duke and duchess then paired up for a public outing to Cambridge, a town of only 15,000 people, which was adorned in a sea of Union Jack flags and banners for the visit.
The town was named 150 years ago after a distant relative of William’s, the second Duke of Cambridge, who was called Prince George like William and Kate’s 8-month-old son.
Throngs lined the streets of Cambridge in the hope of catching a glimpse of the couple.
Cathy Bazley, 63, arrived more than 24 hours before William and Kate’s expected arrival, camping out overnight wrapped in six layers of clothing against the cold.
Small girls in party dresses and tiaras expressed the hope of meeting a “real princess,” while a group of women dressed as monarch butterflies held a homemade sign saying ‘Welcome to the Monarchy’.
William and Kate each laid a red rose on the town’s war memorial before an event opening the town’s new cycling arena.
It was the sixth day of the duke and duchess’s April 7-25 tour of New Zealand and Australia.
The couple returned to their base at Government House in Wellington, where George is staying with nanny Maria Borrallo, after their day trip to the central North Island.
Catherine, the Duchess of Cambridge, talks with Bailey Taylor in the play room while visiting the Waikato Hospice Rainbow Place in Hamilton yesterday.
