Prince Philip returned to New Zealand on a flying visit during the course of his world tour, 1956–57. Arriving by air at Ohakea on 11 December 1956 he travelled to Wellington and, after brief visits to Rotorua, Wairakei, Kawerau, and other places of interest in that area, left for Auckland and Norfolk Island. The stay on Norfolk Island was limited to 15–16 December and the Duke then flew to Christchurch on 16 December to join the royal yacht Britannia bound for the Chatham Islands and thence on to the Antarctic.

In February 1957 the Duke of Edinburgh regained the right to be called Prince. The son of Prince and Princess Andrew of Greece, he had relinquished his title when he became a naturalised British citizen in 1947 and took the surname Mountbatten, his mother's family name. Later in that year he was created Duke of Edinburgh at the time of his marriage to the then Princess Elizabeth.