Royal tour, day 14: Harry and Meghan tour New Zealand

THE Duke and Duchess of Sussex’s Pacific tour continues today in New Zealand, with the royal couple set to travel to a national park and enjoy a beach barbecue with local schoolchildren.

And last night Meghan delivered another passionate public speech — but did she break royal protocol?

Today’s agenda

• Visit Maranui Cafe at Lyall Bay

• Travel to Abel Tasman National Park

• Beach barbecue with schoolchildren

• Return to Wellington for an encounter with young people

First stop, the Maraniu Cafe, where Harry and Meghan arrived to cheers from a waiting crowd of hundreds this morning:

Inside the cafe, they’re attend a meeting with local youths working on various mental health projects throughout Wellington.

After that they’ll make their way to the Abel Tasman National Park, located in the north of New Zealand’s South Island. Once at the remote coastal national park they’ll learn about local conservation efforts and even get their hands dirty planting a few trees.

MEGHAN’S PROTOCOL-BREAKING SPEECH

Last night, Meghan delivered a passionate speech about women’s suffrage at a reception on the royal couple’s first night in New Zealand.

New Zealand was the first country in the world to give women the vote, a fact which Meghan told attendees made them “universally admired”.

But the royal family is forbidden from discussing politics, a strict royal protocol that Meghan appears to have broken with this speech — and not for the first time.

“Suffrage is not simply about the right to vote but also about what that represents — the basic and fundamental human right of being able to participate in the choices for your future and that of your community; the involvement and voice that allows you to be a part of the very world that you are a part of,” she said.

“And women’s suffrage is not simply about the right to vote for women, but also about what that represents: the basic and fundamental human right of all people including those members of society who have been marginalised — whether for reasons of race, gender, ethnicity or orientation — to be able to participate in the choices for their future and their community.

“So bravo New Zealand, for championing this right 125 years ago for the women who well deserve to have an active voice and acknowledged vote and for all the people that this effort has paved the way for globally, we all deeply thank you.

“In the words of your suffragette, Kate Sheppard, ‘All that separates, whether of race, class, creed or sex, is inhuman and must be overcome.’”

Harry and Meghan left Australia after attending the closing ceremony of the Invictus Games at Sydney’s Qudos Bank Arena on Saturday night — an event that saw them both give impassioned speeches about the Games’ importance.

LIFTING THE LID ON A ‘ROYAL REBRANDING’

If you’ve been charmed by the royals’ exhaustive Australian tour, then everything is going according to plan: tonight’s Four Corners, in an episode titled “Windsor Inc”, will look at “the sophisticated corporate campaign to future-proof the Crown”.

The episode, airing at 8.30pm tonight on ABC, charts how the royals have rebuilt their reputation and changed the way they manage “The Firm”.

The new-look royals are the result of “one of the most spectacular rebranding exercises in modern times”.

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