OK, here's the lowdown (from
www.stuff.co.nz)
Prince William's travel plans hit by fog
06 July 2005
Scores of unsuspecting teenage school children came within a hair's breath of seeing Prince William at Invercargill Airport this morning, but low cloud prevented his plane from landing.
The pupils were at the airport to farewell exchange students and were completely oblivious to the fact the future king was on the Air New Zealand flight from Christchurch.
Prince William was scheduled to visit Arrowtown Primary School.
Fog at Queenstown Airport caused a rethink of his travel plans and it was decided to fly him to Invercargill.
However, after making two attempts to land in murky conditions, the aircraft returned to Christchurch, forcing him to cancel his trip to Arrowtown.
Invercargill Airport operations manager Eric Forsyth said the fog was only a problem for a short time and if the plane with Prince William on board had been 20 minutes later it would have been able to land.
Arrowtown is close to Queenstown.
Invercargill is within spitting distance of the South Pole.
Why anyone in their right mind would want to go to Invercargill in July, I have no idea. It's bad enough in summer...)