Britain’s Prince Harry and his wife, Meghan, threw rubber gumboots on Tuesday as children cheered in a competition in New Zealand’s largest city of Auckland.
However, Harry’s team ended up losing to his wife’s side.
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The prince and his wife are on the final leg of a Pacific tour that included Australia, Fiji and Tonga.
Isabella Iti, a 10-year-old girl among the children who threw the rubber gumboots, said after the toss that “there wasn’t too much of a rivalry. I think Meghan was thinking that there was no chance that she would win, but she did.”
The Duke and Duchess of Sussex were visiting a conservation area north of Auckland that had been set aside as part of a Commonwealth initiative to honor Queen Elizabeth’s 66 years on the British throne.
There, the couple split and each led a team of cheering children in a competition to see who could throw a rubber rainboot – known locally as a ‘gumboot’ – the farthest.
Meghan, wearing black J Crew jeans and a Karen Walker blazer, led her team to victory after tossing a blue boot about a meter (3.2 feet) further than Harry’s red one.
Gumboot throwing is famously associated with the rural town of Taihape, around 420 km (260 miles) south of Auckland, which hosts an annual gumboot festival.
Mike Jebsen, Chief Executive of the QEII National Trust, said that the mayor of Taihape gave his blessing to hold the gumboot competition, adding that “we wanted to give the royal couple a taste of rural New Zealand, there’s nothing more quintessentially Kiwi than a gumboot throw.”
In the afternoon, Meghan and Harry traveled to South Auckland to visit the head office of Pillars, a charity that mentors the children of prisoners.
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For their wedding in May, Meghan and Harry had asked for charitable donations in lieu of gifts.
The New Zealand government gave 5,000 New Zealand Dollars (about 3,271 U.S. Dollars) to Pillars in recognition of the couple’s interest in programmes that support vulnerable children. (Reuters/NAN)
