Photo: HANNAH MCKAY
She shakes 650 hands a week and never runs out of something to say, and last year, Princess Anne was named the hardest working member of the Royal Family.
The Telegraph royal editor Hannah Furness went on the road with the "inexhaustible" Princess Anne earlier this year and told RNZ's Jim Mora she learned some valuable lessons.
"She isn't just turning up and cutting a ribbon and then leaving again, she's having these dozens and dozens of conversations where it felt like everybody she spoke to came away feeling like they were the most important person in the room."
The princess' interest in the people involved in the over 300 organisations she supports, seems undimmed at the age of 74, Furness said.
"She sees it as a 9 to 5 job, except quite often, it doesn't finish at five o'clock. But she seems to genuinely find the whole thing still quite interesting, which either is impressive in itself, or if she's acting, it's a very good act."
Five diary keepers were charged with organising the Princess Royal's time, she said.
"Twice a year they send out a message to all of her patronages effectively saying, what do you need from us? Where can we be useful?"
All of the requests are then compiled in a book, she said, and over 1000 invitations or requests are accepted each year.
The princess has a particular way of talking to the thousands of people she meets, Furness said.
"She seems to have a trick of asking very specific questions as icebreakers, so nothing that really requires people to think.
"So if they're nervous, she will just ask 'where are you from?' Or 'where have you travelled from today?' Or 'how long have you worked here?' Something that is quite quick and factual and easy for them to reply to.
"And then it sort of goes from there. And because she has travelled a lot, and she does all these hundreds and hundreds of engagements, I noticed that she has something to say about everything."
Another habit shared with King Charles was ending engagements by turning back for one last comment leaving the impression she wishes she could stay.
Having a superb memory also helps, Furness said.
"If you tell her the small village that you're from, she's probably visited it five years ago, and she can talk to you about a volunteer she met at the community hall, and perhaps you know them and the conversation just seems to flow from that."
While the younger royals make the headlines when they have an engagement, Anne does more engagements that fly under the radar, Furness said.
"You have the members of the family who are working in the background, to do this sort of thing, to travel the country and travel the Commonwealth and meet as many people as possible.
"There's a bit of generational debate, about how worthwhile some of this stuff is. But I think seeing it first-hand, convinced me actually that there's a lot to be said for the old way of doing things."
