Note: Day two was a rest day for the royal trio. Although this is our second Royal Tour blog post, today’s event is technically day three.
Prince George at the Plunket Event © Governor-General of New Zealand/Government House
At 3pm local time in New Zealand, the Duke and Duchess of Cambridge took baby George for his first official royal engagement at Government House, Wellington. The event was held for Plunket, a major provider of well child health services in the country. William and Kate family met nurses and parents, while George had a playdate with other young children.
Prince George and Kate at the event for Plunket © Governor-General of New Zealand/Government House.
During the event, William, Kate and baby George met Plunket’s Wellington Area Manager, two Plunket nurses and Plunket families and their young ones. The future king met ten similarly aged babies who were all born within a few weeks of his own birthday last year.
Prince George looks sleepy after his playdate. © Governor-General of New Zealand/Government House
The prince, who was presented with his very own blue ‘Plunket bear’, was enthusiastically kicking his legs and waving his arms in excitement as he spotted toys on the floor.
Prince George was presented with a Plunket bear. © Woolf / Crown Copyright
According to reporters at the event, the prince was not on his best behaviour – regal heirs and graces went out the window as George made a little girl called Paige cry by grabbing her wooden doll. Rebecca English from The Daily Mail called George a “bruiser”, commenting that he was crawling, dribbling and generally stealing toys off other babies during the playdate.
Baby George crawling and playing with other babies:
Duchess Kate’s outfit today:
For the engagement Kate wore a gorgeous black and white patterned dress from Tory Burch’s Resort ’14 collection, specifically the ‘Paulina’ style. The knee-length dress was cinched in at the waist and is described as having ‘elegant pleats and a tactile fringing.’
Tory Burch Paulina Dress via Net-A-Porter
Kate’s $450 dress was a hit with royal style watchers.
At the time of writing, the Paulina dress was still available in several sizes at Tory Burch’s UK website. Natascia from Pippa Middleton’s Style also informed me that some European Tory Burch websites have the dress in stock too, including Net-A-Porter.com for EUR435.
The piece quickly sold out at Net-A-Porter. Did you miss out? Don’t worry, you can sign up for a wait list to hear about sizes coming back into stock.
Kate wore this Tory Burch ‘Paulina’ dress in New Zealand today
It looks like Kate wore a new pair of black shoes from Jimmy Choo today too. The style is known as the ‘Vikki .’ The shoe is black suede and it retails at £375 / approx $630.
Jimmy Choo Vicki Suede
According to Jimmy Choo, the shoe is “elegant [for] day time chic”. They also write that the “Vikki is the perfect round toe pump with a slim internal platform for added comfort.” The shoe has a 3.9 inch heel and a 0.2 inch platform.
For those who like the style but not the price, you’ll be pleased to know that BlueFly currently stock the shoe in nude patent, smoke grey patent and steel lavender patent. They are currently on sale too!
Jimmy Choo Vikki in different colours
It looks like the Jimmy Choo Vikki pump had another royal fan too, Princess Charlene of Monaco also owns the shoe in a beige-suede colour.
Thanks to the eagled-eyed Michelle from Perth Fashion and Anna from Countess of Wessex blog for sharing this information with us all!
Finally, Kate wore her Cartier Ballon Bleu watch and her Annoushka pearl earrings, worn with Kiki McDonough hoops.
For those interested in the young Prince’s outfits from the tour, you can catch up here at What George Wore.