At the very beginning of a journalist's career, one fact is made abundantly clear - the day the Queen dies will be the world's biggest news story, likely the biggest you'll ever be a part of.
For me, that news came during my OE. A minute later TVNZ was on the phone, asking me to get to London. An hour later, I had a flight booked to Heathrow. Before I knew it, I was standing in front of Buckingham Palace for the first time in my life, wondering what on earth just happened.
While I was technically prepared - it's the story I've considered most since first stepping foot in a newsroom - I have to admit the outpouring of love, sorrow and gratitude here has soared above and beyond my expectations.
Flowers as far as the eye can see, people hugging, crying, leaving handwritten cards expressing thanks - a sense of unity and admiration I have never witnessed on such a large scale.
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The phrase I've heard most frequently among mourners at Buckingham Palace is "I feel like I've lost my own grandmother."
And it's true. She wasn't like other human beings, except it felt like she was.
She loved corgis, cows (look up 'Queen Elizabeth cows' on YouTube right now), and cracking a perfectly-timed joke. A mother to four, a grandmother to eight, a great-grandmother to 12.
She didn't take herself too seriously and wasn't afraid to skirt outside the lanes of royal life - appearing in a Bond skit, acting alongside Paddington Bear, filming a sketch with Prince Harry and the Obamas.
It's no wonder the people turning out at Buckingham Palace feel they have no other option. They want to say goodbye to someone they regard as a family member.
One woman I spoke to at a flower shop today was buying two single roses to lay at Buckingham Palace - one for her mother who died two weeks ago, and the other for the Queen. Her eyes filled with tears, saying both women made such an impact on her life. One of those women she's never even met.
So, yes, it may be the story all newsrooms meticulously plan for for years. But in the last two days I've learnt nothing can prepare you for the feeling filling the palace grounds right now, as the United Kingdom farewells it's longest-reigning monarch who also felt like family.
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