Memorial Service for Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth The Queen Mother

Tena koutou, tena koutou, tena koutou katoa.

We gather today to remember and to celebrate the life of a truly remarkable woman, Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth, the Queen Mother.  We gather also to pay our respects to her family, and to share with them their grief at her passing.

So much has been said about the Queen Mother since she passed away 10 days ago. The tributes have confirmed what we all suspected - she was a woman who lived for her family and her people, who loved life, and to whom millions responded with affection.

She was enormously popular.  Although I did not have the privilege of meeting her personally, her popularity seems to have arisen from a remarkable ability to make people comfortable in her presence.  She also understood the importance of the symbolism of her role, and the leadership that the people of Britain and the Commonwealth craved from the Royal Family in hard times and in happy ones. 

She was every inch a modern member of the Royal Family - accessible, warm and interested in the daily lives of the people - and always dressed to match her role.

And yet by all accounts, she was reluctant for her late husband to assume the monarchy.  We will never know whether that was out of anxiety at the burden that this would place on him, or because she, like Anne, later Queen Anne to Henry the Eighth was personally reluctant.  Perhaps she identified - though no doubt for very different reasons - with the words Shakespeare put in Anne's mouth 'I would not be a queen for all the world'  Nonetheless, Queen Elizabeth, later known as the Queen Mother, assumed her responsibilities with dignity, grace and more than a hint of steel, showing qualities of leadership that no doubt sustained her husband and her people through the dark years of the second world war. 

These qualities remained through the tumultuous years of the twentieth century as she lost her husband prematurely and then supported her youthful daughter as she ascended the throne.

It must have helped all those around her that she had a highly developed sense of humour, particularly when formal occasions went off the rails - believe me, quite a common occurrence.  One of her favourite tales related to her visit to Canada in 1939, where she met a mayor of one of the prairie towns. He was not wearing his chain of office, and when she enquired why, he replied that he wore it only on special occasions.

She was, without a doubt, a royal for all people.

Her grandson, Prince Charles, described her as "the most magical grandmother - an institution in her own right who seemed gloriously unstoppable" - a sentiment echoed by of those associated with the Royal Household said to me a year or so ago, 'it's not when the Queen Mother dies - it's if she dies'.

Indeed, it sometimes seemed to all of us that she would live forever, such was her appetite for life's experiences and her refusal to let mere longevity hold her back. 

And New Zealanders were among her most loyal admirers.  During the last few days we have heard the words of many who, like Prince Charles, simply loved her.

She captured the hearts of all generations, from elderly immigrants, who remember her refusal to leave London during the Second World War, to the very young, who cannot even count to 101 and simply thought of her as a "super-gran."

Her indulgences were glossed over, and even enjoyed vicariously by media and public alike.  After all, we all have our own idiosyncrasies - and like to treat ourselves occasionally.  These are among the qualities that make us human.

And she was no novice when it came to courting good press. She was known to have played pool at the London Press Club, partaking of a glass of Guinness whilst charming her adversaries.

Our fondness for the Queen Mother was demonstrated by the honours we conferred on her, and reinforced by three visits to New Zealand - the first in 1927, the second in 1958, and the last in 1966.

All three visits were based around daunting schedules of public appearances and official engagements.

Throughout these visits, it was the human, personal touches and activities that captured our hearts.  She always found time for fishing, and her other favourite past time - attending race meetings.

Who could forget those wonderful photos of the Queen Mother fishing with her pearls on?  Or at the races bedecked in matching hat and dress?  And that tilt of her head as she smiled beguilingly and waved to her admirers.

In Kiwi terms we decided that she was a "hard case." And we loved her all the more for it.

It is known that the Queen Mother would have liked to have visited New Zealand more often. As recently as four years ago, she was overheard to say that she would love to cast another line in New Zealand waters. She expressed concern that that "awful volcano" would blow up and muddy the waters of the Tongariro River.  No doubt her concern was as much for the people who lived nearby as for the fish.

And she is said to have fantasised about being an Alice in Wonderland, "popping a pill, going down a tube and waking up in New Zealand."

As New Zealand continues to evolve its identity and global relationships, we will treasure the memory of our special relationship with a woman who personified the British royalty of a bygone era. Elizabeth Angela Marguerite Bowes-Lyon will always be, in our hearts too, our magical Queen Mother.

Haere haere haere.  Queen Elizabeth the Queen Mother.  We will miss your sparkle, your ability to warm the lives of so many.  We will miss your hats and pearls, your humour and your love of life.

Kia ora koutou katoa.