Queen Elizabeth II in 2011. Photo: AFP
Many people are sharing their memories of interactions with Queen Elizabeth a day on from her death, and say the wise and warm monarch will be dearly missed.
Staunch royalists Angela and Bill Thompson have spent most of their lives devoted to collecting memorabilia and dressing as the late prince and Queen.
Their immaculate home in Te Aroha is full to the ceiling with royal decor and open for tours.
Angela Thompson told Saturday Morning she heard the news after a radio station got in touch with them early in the morning on Friday.
"Before Bill even answered the phone to pass it to me, he said, 'I think she's passed.' It was like a bad dream really."
"It was like losing my mother all over again" - Angela Thompson
Her own mother had died about the same age as the Queen.
"She was where I got my royal love from … but it was like losing my mother all over again. It was really very, very difficult to cope through the day."
There was lots of support and condolences coming in through to them from around the world, she said.
"It was phenomenal and very tearful.
"It was like suddenly we'd become a family, not just people who adored and loved the Queen for who she was."
They had held special celebrations to mark the Queen's milestones at Corogate Cafe and they compiled a huge album of photos and a video to send to the UK. The Queen replied with a letter to thank them, Angela said.
"We did correspond before, never from the Queen directly, but we always knew from how it was worded that it was genuinely the Queen had seen or respected and taken the items that we had sent for the royal family."
The Hauraki mayor had presented to them three items from the Queen - including a big poster of her 80th birthday, a book of her life, and Buckingham soaps.
"Her hairdresser had been to our café and taken photos of everything inside.
"We didn't realise who he was to start with but he said I'd like to take the photos and show her when I get home - and we initially thought it was showing to the wife, but he went on to say he was the hairdresser for the Queen."
Former Prime Minister Jenny Shipley. Photo: RNZ
'Profound memory' for former PM Jenny Shipley
Former New Zealand prime minister Jenny Shipley told Saturday Morning the Queen's nature was apparent when she visited Sandringham in the 1990s.
There was lively conversation between the Queen, Prince Philip and the Queen Mother over memories of fishing in Taupo.
"This was like a family chat and these photos were being shared and the Queen Mother proceeded to entertain people about her memories of fishing.
"There was a lot of whose fish was larger and fishing stories, some of which Prince Philip was arguing were exaggerated memories rather than factual commentary."
It was just like any other family, where there was fun and banter, she said.
But what struck Dame Jenny was the Queen's deep knowledge and interest in the Treaty settlement process.
"You never got the impression it was just a recent briefing [that the Queen got before speaking to people].
"She followed the nations of her Commonwealth and I believe she also was able to prevail to countries that were not part of Commonwealth, because she was so respected and I do think that had an influence, particularly last century.
"I mean this was not an easy topic. It was complicated and there people elements and legal elements and I was very struck that she was conscious of the inadequacies of the way in which the Treaty had been honoured over the years and how engaged she was in working with a country that was seeking to put it right. It's a very profound memory."
"They warmed to her quickly because she just had that lovely, natural dispossession" - Dame Jenny Shipley
The 'lady in blue'
A Scottish reverend has remembered the Queen as a lady of dry wit and graciousness.
The Very Reverend Dr Derek Browning served as Moderator of the General Assembly of the Church of Scotland in 2017 and 2018 and is currently the minister at Morningside Parish Church in Edinburgh.
He met the Queen several times and stayed at Balmoral and told Saturday Morning he had many funny memories of her.
One time, the Queen had heard he preached using an anecdote of him meeting her when he was two years old and how he was asked to focus on the "lady in blue".
"She just gave me the warmest, broadest smile you've ever seen" - Very Reverend Dr Derek Browning
A day later, they were due to met for the opening of the Queen's ferry crossing. She stepped out of her car and came straight to him saying: "Well Moderator, will this do?"
"I was speaking to her lady in waiting afterwards and she said do you know it was more special than you realise? She had several options to wear several different things, but she said 'no, I'm going to wear blue, because that's what the Moderator would expect'."
It was a moment he would never forget, he said.
"That's the kind of magnificent lady she was."
The Queen also drove him to a royal barbecue, and he recalls how well-read and wise she was.
"She was somebody who took enormous pleasure in being in other people's company and that famous saying of hers 'I have to be seen to be believed', was certainly something that mattered to her."
Queen Elizabeth II in 2017 Photo: AFP
Balmoral - a special place for the Queen
A Scottish political correspondent told Saturday Morning it was fitting the Queen had died at Balmoral, in Scotland - a place she had described as one of her favourites.
Queen Elizabeth II spent three months of the year at the Royal Residence, 80km away from Aberdeen.
Correspondent Andrew Learmonth told Saturday Morning the Queen had a greater sense of normalcy at the relatively remote residence.
"She died somewhere where she was very comfortable."
Scottish Women's Institutes president Anne Kerr said sometimes her members would run into the monarch while at her estate.
"She was always very happy" - Scottish Women's Institutes president Anne Kerr
The members would sometimes be driven by the Queen to tea rooms in her Range Rover, and she would speak to each one of them, she said.
They would miss her greatly, she said.
"She was always very happy and made everyone feel so special."
Undated picture of the Queen Elizabeth II, her two children Charles (R) and Anne and a corgi posing in Balmoral. Photo: -
In Braemar, the closest town to Balmoral, Marilyn Baker is part of the Castleton Dancers of Braemar, who do Scottish Country dancing as a way to keep fit and raise money for charity.
When the Queen turned 80, Baker created a new dance - or strathspey - for her, and the group later performed it for the Queen.
"It was a lovely gesture" - Marilyn Baker
She had also received a letter from the Queen just last week, thanking her for sending a copy of a book which she wrote with some children.
The book had referenced the forest in the Balmoral estate and the Queen and her corgis.
"To think that she had died so soon after was just very sad.
"It was a lovely gesture, for someone so old and not in good health, she still took the time to have her lady in waiting send a letter to me."
A 'role model' for women
Dame Jenny said many remembering their own mothers and grandmothers as they mourned the Queen.
"My own mother adored the Queen, and that generation almost looked alike in the way they dressed and the way they enjoyed things.
"She was a huge role model to them. So I think there are many of us, those who are still alive and those who have passed on, there have been many chitter chats about who will be at the gates ready for afternoon tea, and it's that connected that people felt she was part of their lives."
University of Canterbury historian Katie Pickles has researched how the reigns of Queen Elizabeth and her great-grandmother Queen Victoria helped raise women's status.
"They really are the standout monarchs of the past 200 years, of modern times.
"They've very much been queens in every sense."
"She grew up taking on a number of roles that weren't just for women" - University of Canterbury historian Katie Pickles
When a female monarch rose through the hereditary ranks, they had a different aura, Prof Pickles said.
"They have to take on often masculine qualities and parade military features and so forth.
"So the argument sort of goes that they effectively become more powerful through their difference and if you actually look at the reign of Elizabeth, she of course during the war was a mechanic and working that way. She grew up taking on a number of roles that weren't just for women.
"She always also promoted women's health and education and welfare.
"The idea of a role model is always a bit tricky and slippery, isn't it, but you can definitely say that she was a woman in power, if you believe that the monarchy has power, and so in that sense, she became a leader."
In her research, she found that some women took on her mantle.
"They think they are her; they are inspired by her and they actually follow her in a lot of the work that they do."