The day Mereana met the queen

(click on image to enlarge)
Key: ELIZABETH RICHIE MEREANA PHILLIP

The royals came to meet the All Blacks and inspect The Rugby Ball, the giant expo centre that has been erected in London to promote The 2011 Rugby World Cup and New Zealand tourism.

With a large media throng assembled an hour and half before the Queen's arrival, and the All Blacks taking up their position about an hour later, standing in formation three-deep outside the ball, they copped a decent blast off the Thames. Officially the temperature was two degrees but the wind-chill factor had to be much lower.

The Queen and Duke arrived to be met by New Zealand Prime Minister John Key, All Blacks captain McCaw and a Maori welcome by Mereana & Precious. This time Mereana actually got to shake hands with the Queen, and spent a good old time nattering with the Duke.

I was standing about 6m away from the Queen when she got out of her car and walked toward the welcoming committee. She seemed tiny, and was dwarfed by the ABs. Sorry, my camera has crapped itself, so these are screen grabs from the video.