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QUEEN ELIZABETH II usually embarks on royal tours abroad with a beaming smile, and to a warm reception. The UK’s longest serving monarch has visited more than 120 countries since her accession, in 1953, usually to rapturous applause and extensive positive welcomes. Yet one journey, in 1986, was particularly different. The Queen, 92, visited New Zealand when the indigenous rights Maori movement in Aotearoa was at its peak.

Prince Philip left ‘flustered’ by this on royal tour with the Queen

It was sparked when the Europeans first colonised New Zealand and, when the Queen stepped foot down under, she felt the force.

In his new book Queen of the World, biographer Robert Hardman detailed the incident, and wrote: “If there was anything to worry about, it was the situation in New Zealand, where the monarchy was increasingly seen as fair game for the more extreme elements of the Maorii protest movement.

“In 1986, the Queen was hit by an egg, which caught her coat.

“Though the incident alarmed her - Prime Minister David Lange called it ‘deplorable’ - she later made a joke that she preferred New Zealand eggs ‘for breakfast’.”

Her sharp response may have been quite unexpected by those around her.