It will be a coronation of colour for those who saw the crowning of Queen Elizabeth II on television in black and white 70 years ago.
The generation who have known King George VI and Queen Elizabeth II will today welcome a new king, in a ceremony which reflects efforts to show the 1000-year-old monarchy is still relevant.
The coronation of Queen Elizabeth II was covered in newspapers, magazines as well as on black and white television back in 1953 and today, that will all change for royal watchers who are eager to see, in real-time, a spectacular event unfold before their eyes.
Three residents at Bruce McLaren Retirement Village in Auckland's Howick, spoke to 1News ahead of the coronation.
An Anglican deacon who grew up in England, Reverend Ann McLean, told 1News she didn’t have a television at home when Queen Elizabeth II was crowned.
"Seventy years ago, when I was 10, I was put on a train by myself to go from just south of Manchester to Cambridge to stay with my maternal grandparents because they had a TV and I was thought to be old enough to experience the coronation," she said.
She said this weekend, she’s looking forward to "seeing all the glitz and glamour that I saw in black and white, now in big colour and seeing how the memories are stirred of what I experienced all those years ago".
McLean went to Benenden School in Kent for a term with Princess Anne and said she wasn't treated differently to any other pupils.
"When the Queen came, we just said good morning or good afternoon ma'am, unless she started a conversation with us."
Sylvia Crittenden, who grew up in London’s Bromley, said she went to an aunt’s house to watch the then 25-year-old Elizabeth II ascend the throne as their family didn’t have a television.
"A lot of it wasn’t televised, you would see it in magazines. I supposed when it did become televised it was on black and white television – there was no colour," the 88-year-old said.
Crittenden said she remembered King George VI and said he was a very “heart-warming” man.
"I suppose growing up during the war you had the King and Queen there, and they were always in your life. Being born in England, this coronation is a bit more personal."
She said she had just started a new job and was given time off to go to his funeral in 1952.
“I remember the quietness and the marching of the sailors pulling the coffin and the sound of the horses trotting.
“People were very sad. The Queen followed in the coach and they were all wearing black veils.
“I must have been about 16-years-old I suppose.”
She said it was very similar seeing the Queen’s funeral in September.
Self-confessed royalist Cynthia Walker said she grew up in the King Country, in the west of New Zealand's North Island, and remembers waiting for the paper to come out to see pictures of Princess Anne and Princess Elizabeth.
The 89-year-old remembers meeting members of the royal family when Queen Elizabeth II and her husband, Prince Philip, went on a New Zealand tour with Charles and Anne in 1970.
She said the Queen was "just magic", but believes King Charles III is "really to me, just one of the people, so he has as yet to earn his place as King".
"But from what he’s done and what I’ve seen, I think he will do extremely well.
"[The monarchy] needs to be modernised as they are trying to do, but then when they modernise, they lose the magic that I was brought up with."
Cynthia Walker remembers the royals that were. (Source: 1News)
Crittenden said she believes life will now be "entirely different" for Charles.
"He’s an outspoken man. He says what he feels but I’m sure he will do really well."
McLean said she believes Charles has been eclipsed by the public's love and admiration for the late Queen for many years.
"I think for Charles to be heir in waiting for so many years must have been really, really hard for him. And because his mum was so loved by everybody, he was in the shadows," she said.
"We have to give him a chance to prove himself as King, rather than just being in waiting.
"I think things will change with him, I think he will be more with the people than his mother was."
Melissa Stokes and Daniel Faitaua will host 1News Presents: Their Majesties' Coronation from 7pm on Saturday May 6 on TVNZ 1, TVNZ+ and 1News.co.nz
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