Royally chuffed with tickets

Royal fans Tash Bambry and her mother, Marion Long, both of Dunedin, show off the tickets they...
Royal fans Tash Bambry and her mother, Marion Long, both of Dunedin, show off the tickets they queued for yesterday for the Regal Rugby Fun Day at Forsyth Barr Stadium. Photo by Craig Baxter.

Tash Bambry is looking forward to again seeing the Duke and Duchess of Cambridge, having ''attended'' their wedding in London.

The Dunedin woman was living in Ireland when Prince William married Catherine ''Kate'' Middleton in April 2011 and travelled to England for the event.

Yesterday Mrs Bambry and her mother, Marion Long, queued outside Forsyth Barr Stadium to get the best public tickets available for the Regal Rugby Fun Day on April 13.

Mrs Bambry said living in the United Kingdom had sparked her interest in the Royal family, an interest shared by her mother.

''I [watched] their wedding in Hyde Park, which was made into a wedding venue with huge screens showing the ceremony, so I wanted to follow that up and see them again here in New Zealand.''

Mrs Bambry said she shared some milestones with the Royal couple.

''They are the same age as my husband and I and we got engaged, then they got engaged, we got married, then they got married; we had a son, then they had a son.''

She and her mother, who started queueing at 5am, were first in line.

The Regal Rugby Fun Day is a free public event but tickets to the best 4000 seats were made available yesterday.

Hundreds of people queued at the stadium to get tickets from 9am, and others were able to book online a few hours later.

By 1pm, almost 3000 of the prime seats were gone and organisers said they would monitor numbers and ticket more areas of the stadium, if required.

The Duke and Duchess will be guests at the Rippa rugby event, involving local teams and community groups.

All Blacks and Highlanders Aaron Smith and Ben Smith, with their Highlanders team mate and former All Black Brad Thorn, will also be involved.

The three-hour mini tournament will be accompanied by entertainment and will coincide with the regular Sunday market at the stadium.

Before the event, the Duke and Duchess will attend a church service at St Paul's Cathedral in the Octagon.

In the afternoon, they will fly to Queenstown, where they will visit the Amisfield vineyard to sample local wines and take a jet-boat ride on the Shotover River.

The couple will stay overnight in Queenstown and fly to Christchurch on April 14.

The Royal couple will be in New Zealand from April 7-16, then head to Australia.

rosie.manins@odt.co.nz

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