Prince Harry passed on greetings from "our little bump" to New Zealanders when he and pregnant wife Meghan toured a South Island nature reserve on Monday.
The British royals were met with blasts from a conch shell before a traditional Maori greeting was performed in their honour as they arrived at the Abel Tasman National Park.
In pouring rain, Harry told the crowd he was grateful the weather was just mild enough to allow the royal party to make the trip from the capital Wellington in a New Zealand Air Force NH90 helicopter.
"The forecast was a lot worse than this so we are very, very glad to have made it," he said.
"The rain is a blessing on all of us... from my wife, myself and our little bump, we are so grateful to be here.
"We bring blessings from my grandmother, Her Majesty the Queen, and all of our family."
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Read more:
Meghan Markle and Prince Harry arrive in New Zealand
Meghan Markle and Prince Harry in Tonga's national dress
Meghan Markle and Prince Harry honour 'Fijian Rambo'
Meghan Markle rushed through Fiji market amid security concerns
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The couple then walked along the beach arm-in-arm talking to ranger Andrew Lamason.
They came across a weka, with their guide describing the flightless bird as New Zealand's version of a monkey because of their cheeky nature.
Earlier, the pair expressed their admiration for mental health workers at a beachside morning tea in Wellington.
Sitting alongside Meghan at the Maranui Cafe in Lyall Bay, Harry was unstinting in his praise for the gathered mental health advocates.
"I take my hat off to you guys," he told members of Voices of Hope, which aims to prevent youth suicide.
"Everyone needs someone to turn to right?"
Meghan, sipping from a cup of tea and wearing a grey Club Monaco trench coat to ward off the Wellington chill, added: "You're all doing really excellent work."
The couple are in New Zealand on the final leg of a marathon 16-day tour which has also taken in Australia, Fiji and Tonga.
The trip coincided with the 2018 Invictus Games in Sydney, an Olympic style sporting event for wounded soldiers that Harry helped found.
ROUTE TO TITLE
Round 1: Beat Leolia Jeanjean 6-1, 6-2
Round 2: Beat Naomi Osaka 7-6, 1-6, 7-5
Round 3: Beat Marie Bouzkova 6-4, 6-2
Round 4: Beat Anastasia Potapova 6-0, 6-0
Quarter-final: Beat Marketa Vondrousova 6-0, 6-2
Semi-final: Beat Coco Gauff 6-2, 6-4
Final: Beat Jasmine Paolini 6-2, 6-2
The Transfiguration
Director: Michael O’Shea
Starring: Eric Ruffin, Chloe Levine
Three stars
Company profile
Name: Envi Lodges
Started: September 2021
Co-founders: Noelle Homsy and Chris Nader
Based: UAE
Sector: Hospitality
Number of employees: 12 to 15
Stage of investment: Series A
EMIRATES'S REVISED A350 DEPLOYMENT SCHEDULE
Edinburgh: November 4 (unchanged)
Bahrain: November 15 (from September 15); second daily service from January 1
Kuwait: November 15 (from September 16)
Mumbai: January 1 (from October 27)
Ahmedabad: January 1 (from October 27)
Colombo: January 2 (from January 1)
Muscat: March 1 (from December 1)
Lyon: March 1 (from December 1)
Bologna: March 1 (from December 1)
Source: Emirates
Tips for used car buyers
- Choose cars with GCC specifications
- Get a service history for cars less than five years old
- Don’t go cheap on the inspection
- Check for oil leaks
- Do a Google search on the standard problems for your car model
- Do your due diligence. Get a transfer of ownership done at an official RTA centre
- Check the vehicle’s condition. You don’t want to buy a car that’s a good deal but ends up costing you Dh10,000 in repairs every month
- Validate warranty and service contracts with the relevant agency and and make sure they are valid when ownership is transferred
- If you are planning to sell the car soon, buy one with a good resale value. The two most popular cars in the UAE are black or white in colour and other colours are harder to sell
Tarek Kabrit, chief executive of Seez, and Imad Hammad, chief executive and co-founder of CarSwitch.com
Three ways to boost your credit score
Marwan Lutfi says the core fundamentals that drive better payment behaviour and can improve your credit score are:
1. Make sure you make your payments on time;
2. Limit the number of products you borrow on: the more loans and credit cards you have, the more it will affect your credit score;
3. Don't max out all your debts: how much you maximise those credit facilities will have an impact. If you have five credit cards and utilise 90 per cent of that credit, it will negatively affect your score.
Company Profile
Company name: myZoi
Started: 2021
Founders: Syed Ali, Christian Buchholz, Shanawaz Rouf, Arsalan Siddiqui, Nabid Hassan
Based: UAE
Number of staff: 37
Investment: Initial undisclosed funding from SC Ventures; second round of funding totalling $14 million from a consortium of SBI, a Japanese VC firm, and SC Venture
SPECS: Polestar 3
Engine: Long-range dual motor with 400V battery
Power: 360kW / 483bhp
Torque: 840Nm
Transmission: Single-speed automatic
Max touring range: 628km
0-100km/h: 4.7sec
Top speed: 210kph
Price: From Dh360,000
On sale: September
The biog
Family: wife, four children, 11 grandchildren, 16 great-grandchildren
Reads: Newspapers, historical, religious books and biographies
Education: High school in Thatta, a city now in Pakistan
Regrets: Not completing college in Karachi when universities were shut down following protests by freedom fighters for the British to quit India
Happiness: Work on creative ideas, you will also need ideals to make people happy
Under 19 Cricket World Cup, Asia Qualifier
Fixtures
Friday, April 12, Malaysia v UAE
Saturday, April 13, UAE v Nepal
Monday, April 15, UAE v Kuwait
Tuesday, April 16, UAE v Singapore
Thursday, April 18, UAE v Oman
UAE squad
Aryan Lakra (captain), Aaron Benjamin, Akasha Mohammed, Alishan Sharafu, Anand Kumar, Ansh Tandon, Ashwanth Valthapa, Karthik Meiyappan, Mohammed Faraazuddin, Rishab Mukherjee, Niel Lobo, Osama Hassan, Vritya Aravind, Wasi Shah
Sly Cooper and the Thievius Raccoonus
Developer: Sucker Punch Productions
Publisher: Sony Computer Entertainment
Console: PlayStation 2 to 5
Rating: 5/5