Prince Harry Visits New Zealand

In which Harry learns the traditional Maori haka.

Prince Harry Visits New Zealand

There is video; you should probably watch.

Prince Harry Visits New Zealand

I hope you like Harry in camo and/or berets, because this slideshow is all about bringing that to you. (I appreciate the care that Harry is clearly taking to put his beret on perfectly. One's uniform must always be spit-spot, of course.)

Prince Harry Visits New Zealand

There was, of course, Continued Gleeful Sports With Children.

Prince Harry Visits New Zealand

In which I continue the glorious tradition of posting photos of Royal Butts. I fully expect that eventually a flipbook titled The Best of Royal Butts will truly be my legacy.

Prince Harry Visits New Zealand

"Well, if people are interested in my butt...what can you do?"

Prince Harry Visits New Zealand

There was also rowing in a traditional waka canoe. I like to this that this man is whispering in Harry's ear that he's TERRIBLE at rowing. "You'll never be as good at rowing as your brother. NEVER!" You know, just to get into his head.

Prince Harry Visits New Zealand

This is, per Informative Caption, "95 year old Kenneth Newton, a WWII veteran who met King George VI." I wish I knew what they were talking about it. I assume this photo, but for all we know, Mr. Newton is asking Harry about Kate's deep conditioning treatments.

Prince Harry Visits New Zealand

And, of course, there was a meeting with adorable uniformed children. All that's missing is a goat!

Prince Harry Visits New Zealand

Informative Caption is VERY formal here. It says: "His Royal Highness Prince Henry of Wales meets [Search & Rescue] dog Gemma during a reception at Government House to recognise the emergency services." MY Uninformative Caption just says ,"ooh, goody, someone brought a dog!"

Prince Harry Visits New Zealand

This is at a Youth Centre -- one must use the spelling of the country to which one is referring -- and it also seems totally like Business As Usual for this one.

Prince Harry Visits New Zealand - Day 8

Per Informative Caption: "Prince Harry scores the winning goal on the final buzzer as he captains the New Zealand team playing the All Stars in a five a side game of football to promote FIFA Under 20 World Cup at the Cloud." Per me: PRESENTED WITHOUT COMMENT.

Prince Harry Visits New Zealand - Day 7

And this is totally what it's going to look like when Harry and I go to Hawaii on our honeymo -- WAIT NEVER MIND I DIDN'T SAY THAT.

Queen Elizabeth II

Here's Queen Elizabeth II leaving the VE Day 70th Anniversary service at Wabbey, as Westminster Abbey styles itself on Twitter. When I saw this, I literally thought, "oooh, she's wearing that dress of her I like," which is how you know I've been doing this for a while.

Princess Beatrice

Here's your Informative Caption, which also explains why this shot is so dark: "Princess Beatrice attends the lighting of a beacon by Queen Elizabeth II during three days of national commemorations to mark the 70th anniversary of VE Day." She looks...appropriate? That coat might be good.

Chaz and Camz

Camilla spent this weekend in various shades of blue, and a series of truly ENORMO hats.

Chaz and Cams and Sophie

See??

The Queen and Camz

Later in the week, she and her Maj popped over to the horse show (of course). QE2 has NEVER looked more like someone's granny than she does here.

Camilla Visit The World Museum

I feel like Camilla is secretly plotting how to get these plants made into a hat.

Sophie Wessex

And Sophie popped over to the new Thames Valley Air Ambulance base. She looks jaunty in those pants; she should dress like this more often.

Baptism Of The Princely Children at The Monaco Cathedral

Now, let's pop over to Monaco for the baptism of Charlene and Alfred's twins. Charlene has NEVER SEEMED HAPPIER, which is lovely. Here, we've got all the godparents: Gareth Wittstock (Charlene's brother), Nerine Pienaar (she's married to a very famous South African rugby player apparently), Al holding Princess Gabriella, Charlene holding Prince Jacques, Diane de Polignac Nigra (who has a great name) and Christopher Le Vine Jr, who is (I THINK) a cousin.

Princess Charlene

ANYWAY, those are some cute babies and Charlene has seriously SERIOUSLY never looked more joyful in her life, which is very nice to see. She apparently put a lot of work into planning this event; maybe Charlene just needs a project.

Al and Char and the kids

These two little muffins are appropriately unimpressed by the shenanigans.

Felipe and Letizia and the president of Italy, Sergio Mattarella

Speaking of looking good, Letizia looks fab in this; her hair looks so saucy all curled.

Queen Letizia

Informative Caption: "Spain's Queen Letizia delivered the national flag to the 11th National Teach Zone of the Civil Guard. " And in one of my favorite of her coats, no less. Perfect for a later-in-life wedding at city hall, in case you're wondering.

Royals Round-Up, May 15, 2015

In which we glory in the rest of Prince Harry's time in New Zealand. SO MUCH HARRY. And other stuff happens, like Princess Charlene looks happier than LITERALLY EVER, which is nice for her. Here at GFY this week, we tackled the first half of Harry's trip, and it was chockablock with charm, so don't miss it (or revisit it, if you like). Allow me to remind you, once again, that our book, The Royal We, is out and about and very appropriate for your Nearly Summer Poolside Readings, if you haven't picked it up. If you're still on the fence, by the way, those first seven chapters are still free. And elsewhere: Hello! has a salute to Prince Carl Philip's hotness on the occasion of his birthday this week. Also, this cracks me up: Harry went to pub trivia this last week, wherein his team was named The Ginger Ninjas (hee) and lost to his PPOs. The Mirror has good deets on the New Zealand leg of Harry's trip, including a bit where he admits that he is losing his hair. And Kensington Palace's Instagram has a video of Harry playfully plonking his paint-covered hand on the bald head of royals photog Arthur Edwards (who was, by his own account, highly amused). Pippa Middleton wrote a "marvellously British guide to croquet" in this month's Vanity Fair. Over at Racked, this is excellent: A Palace Chef on What the Royal Family Really Eats. This is a good bit: "I had a soufflé on the menu the first night, and things like that can be a nightmare because they have to go straight from the oven to the table. I had the butler literally running down the corridor trying to get the soufflé to the table. You don’t really envision getting yourself into that until you visit one of these old castles and find yourself down in the dungeons." The Washington Post asks, How do you save a lady’s coronation robe? Very carefully. And this is TOTALLY fascinating: The Bathing Habits of Queen Caroline. (All Things Georgian) Over at Duchess Diaries, we've got excellent coverage of the baptism in Monaco. And People's get even more scoop. Marie Claire rounds up what they call 8 Beauty Secrets Straight from Royalty, including a face mask from Marie Antoinette Royalista takes a look back at Queen Sofia and King Juan Carlos of Spain's wedding. And the Tiarapedia looks at Crown Princess Mary's wedding tiara.