Zara not really so different

Zara Phillips (left) relaxes at the Wingatui races on Saturday with friends Heelan Tompkins ...
Zara Phillips (left) relaxes at the Wingatui races on Saturday with friends Heelan Tompkins (centre), of New Plymouth, and Bex Murray, of Lake Tekapo. Photo by Tayler Strong.
Zara walks through the Octagon to a bar during halftime between the All Blacks and France on...
Zara walks through the Octagon to a bar during halftime between the All Blacks and France on Saturday night. Photo by Stephen Jaquiery.
Zara supports England against Romania in the 2011 World Cup Pool match at the Otago Stadium on...
Zara supports England against Romania in the 2011 World Cup Pool match at the Otago Stadium on Saturday night. Photo by Peter McIntosh.

If you shop at Pak'nSave, drink coffee at St Clair, enjoy watching rugby and the races and like going out for a drink, then you have more in common with royalty than you might think.

The Zara Phillips show officially ended for Dunedin with the departure of the Queen's eldest granddaughter yesterday morning.

Also leaving yesterday was the English rugby team - including her husband of seven weeks, Mike Tindall - and the big media team which alternately provided coverage about her and the England sportsmen.

The newlyweds were reunited in Dunedin on Thursday night, with Ms Phillips arriving after her husband's involvement with a mysterious blonde in Queenstown.

The couple were spotted together at two Dunedin cafes on Friday, but on Saturday, with Tindall preparing for his rugby match, Ms Phillips ventured out with two New Zealand friends, Bex Murray and Heelan Tompkins.

The trio took in a spot of shopping at Pak'nSave, went to the horse racing at Wingatui, dined at Swell Cafe in St Clair and watched England trounce Romania before heading into the Octagon.

• Ms Phillips is facing fresh humiliation after the owner of a second Queenstown bar revealed he had footage of her husband canoodling with a mystery blonde.

The CCTV images from Cowboys bar are said to be much clearer than the grainy black-and-white shots that landed the England back in trouble two weeks ago.

Britain's Daily Mail reports Tindall and the woman were said to be "all over each other' after arriving at the wild west-themed venue from the nearby Altitude bar, where their intimate conversation was caught on camera and posted online.

However, Tindall (32), who played in England's thumping Rugby World Cup victory over Romania in Dunedin on Saturday, might take some comfort from the fact that the new footage is likely to stay under wraps - for now, at least.

Cowboys manager Mel Latu said steps had been taken to ensure it could not be downloaded from its computers without authority.

She said: "Whatever happens in our bar, stays in our bar. We're not out to ruin a guy's life.'And bar owner Leo Molloy, of Auckland, said: "Our position is that if it's not a crime, then we won't release the footage. .'

But Mr Molloy confirmed he could access the footage shot by his venue's 16 state-of-the-art CCTV cameras "any time I want to".

  - Additional reporting by APNZ

 

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