King Charles and Queen Camilla have attended a farewell ceremony in Samoa as the royal couple prepare for their UK return.
The King and Queen arrived for a farewell ceremony at Siumu Village on the final day of their royal visit to Australia and Samoa.
During the ceremony, the King, 75, was conferred with an honorary title – “To’aiga-o-Tumua of the village of Siumu”
Their Majesties’ tour of Samoa ended with downpour, similarly to how they arrived in Sydney seven days ago.
King Charles III and Queen Camilla arrive for a farewell ceremony at Siumu Village
According to villagers in Samoa, the rain was viewed as a blessing from the royal guests to help with the harvest.
Overall, the King and Queen’s tour of the South Pacific was a huge success.
Thousands of people lined the streets of Sydney on the couple’s final day in Australia, eager to see King Charles and Queen Camilla, set against the iconic Opera House.
For Buckingham Palace, this was likely the ideal ending to the royal tour of Australia.
King Charles and Queen Camilla perform final engagement in Samoa as royal couple prepare to return to UK
Despite a headline-grabbing protest in Canberra on Monday, the public mood on the ground in Sydney was supportive.
Back in February, it was uncertain whether or not the tour would happen with the King’s cancer diagnosis and subsequent treatment.
But it stayed in the diary with modifications on the advice of doctors.
The duration of this visit has been shorter and the engagements have been arranged to avoid early starts and late finishes.
King Charles and Queen Camilla are set to return to the UK after a successful tour
Villagers sat in the rain as they watched King Charles’s farewell ceremony
Even with the alterations, it has still been a busy schedule for the King and Queen.
On Tuesday alone the royal couple between them visited a National Centre of Indigenous Excellence, a food bank, a social housing project, a literacy initiative, a community barbecue, meeting two leading cancer researchers, celebrating the Sydney Opera House’s 50th anniversary, and a naval review in Sydney Harbour.
In Samoa, the monarch delivered a powerful speech at the Commonwealth Heads of Government Meeting.
Amid growing calls for reparations for Britain’s role in the slave trade, the King appeared to tackle the contentious issue by saying “None of us can change the past”.
The King and Queen have marked the final day of their nine-day tour to Australia and Samoa.
King Charles and Queen Camilla waved from the steps of a Royal Australian Air Force jet as they bade farewell to Samoa after a successful four-day state visit.
Charles, 75, and Camilla, 77, visited Siumu Village earlier on Saturday morning for a farewell ceremomy and were greeted with the same wet conditions they arrived in Sydney to eight days earlier.
Their Majesties arrived at Faleolo VIP Terminal in a motorcade and briefly greeted the Deputy Prime Minister of Samoa, the Minister for Enviroment and Police Commissioner while sheltering under umbrellas,
The Queen cautiously made her way up the steps first and turned to wave before heading in the dry.
A few minutes later the King boarded the aircraft, after being joined by the Queen to wave to those gathered below.
King Charles and Queen Camilla at the farewell ceremony (Image: Getty)
Earlier on Saturday, the King said he will “always remain devoted to this part of the world” as he said farewell to Samoa.
Visiting a village twinned with the UK for the Commonwealth Heads of Government Meeting (CHOGM), Charles was honoured with the chiefly title of To’aiga-O-Tumua by the village’s high chief, as he and Camilla were presented with sacred kava in coconut shells with straws.
“May God bless this kava,” the King said as he lifted the cup and drank.
The chief told Charles: “Your papa, Prince Philip, was here, so thank you for making the time. Your royal visit has lifted our house.”
Queen Camilla sheltered from the rain before heading inside the plane
Villages around the Samoan capital Apia are twinned with each of the 56 member states of the Commonwealth, flying the flags of the countries they have adopted, with street furniture painted in the national colours.
In his impromptu speech Charles said: “We’ve been so impressed by the beautiful way in which all the villages have decorated the roadsides, it is something very special about Samoa.”
He thanked residents for their “wonderful generosity” bringing gifts of food and “other wonderful things”, and said the royal couple would take away “special memories of our time here”.
When the couple arrived, a downpour began, drenching villagers and elders gathered for the ceremony which took place just an hour before their flight home.
