AFP :
King Charles III touched down in Australia Friday, embarking on the most strenuous foreign trip since his life-changing cancer diagnosis eight months ago.
After a gruelling 20-plus hour journey, the 75-year-old monarch and his wife Queen Camilla landed in a rain-sodden Sydney, and were greeted by local dignitaries and posy-bearing children.
The king is on a nine-day tour of his far-flung Australian and Samoan realms that will showcase a busy public barbecue, famed landmarks and pressing climate dangers.
He is the first reigning monarch to set foot Down Under since 2011, when thronging crowds flocked to catch a white-gloved wave from his mother Queen Elizabeth II.
The king’s long-planned trip is designed to bolster the monarchy among an increasingly disinterested Australian public, whose British heritage is now just one element in a melting-pot nation.
“I’d forgotten they were even coming,” said 73-year-old Sydneysider Trevor Reeves, summing up the mood in Australia’s largest city.