When Sylvia Corin heard Prince Charles and his wife Camilla, Duchess of Cornwall were coming to New Zealand this month, she was determined to add to her tally of the times she’s met royalty.
So she turned up at Auckland’s Aotea Square on Sunday, where the couple were going for a very quick walkabout before attending events at Auckland Town Hall.
Sylvia was armed with several commemorative flags and joined a fairly small but enthusiastic crowd of people keen to catch a glimpse of the heir to the throne and his wife.
Sylvia didn’t get to meet Camilla this time but caught up with Charles after waving her flags and catching his attention.
“He asked if I was a flag seller,” says Sylvia, who pointed out that one of her flags came from the Queen’s Diamond Jubilee in 2012 and the other from the wedding of Charles’s son Prince William to Catherine, Duchess of Cambridge in 2011.
British born Sylvia, who has lived in New Zealand for 52 years, travelled to the UK for both events – along with the 1981 wedding of Charles to his first wife Diana – and will be going back next year for the Queen’s 90th birthday celebrations.
“Obviously I am a huge fan of the royal family – I like to call myself a royal observer,” says Sylvia, who has seen the Queen, William and Kate on their visits here. “They bring a lot of joy to people. There’s so much negativity in the world today so it is nice to have something positive.”
Sylvia, who featured in the New Zealand Woman’s Weekly in 2013 in a story about her royal memorabilia collection, says she was a little bit unsure about Camilla at first, and wasn’t happy that they’d had a relationship while he was married to Diana.
“I didn’t think I would gravitate towards Camilla but she seems like a nice lady, and she makes Charles happy, which is the important thing.”
She added, “it’s actually a lot easier for people in New Zealand to see the royals whenever they come here because they do these walkabouts and talk to the crowds. You don’t get to see as much of them in the UK.”
