More than 1500 people are expected to attend the Mount Maunganui dawn service. Photo / File
More than 1500 people are expected to attend the Mount Maunganui dawn service. Photo / File
Dawn parades and remembrance services will be held across the Western Bay on Thursday to commemorate Anzac Day and honour New Zealand's fallen soldiers.
April 25 will mark 104 years since the landing of the Australian and New Zealand Army Corps at Gallipoli during World War I in 1915.
Dawn parades will be held in Mount Maunganui, Tauranga, Maketū and Katikati.
Civic services were planned for later in the morning at Pāpāmoa, Tauranga, Pyes Pā and Te Puke.
Mount Maunganui RSA club support manager Peter Moss said more than 1500 people usually attended the dawn service at the Mount cenotaph on Marine Parade.
"Seeing the elder people out there with their medals who refuse to sit down is pretty special," he said. "As well as all of the young children including the Girl Guides and Boy Scouts."
Tauranga RSA president Fred Milligan said about 2000 people typically attended the dawn service.
Milligan said dawn services did not start until 1939 and were an opportunity for people to remember the fallen.
"It is part of our history," he said. "Most of us will have some sort of connection with Anzac Day."
Milligan said he had been to almost every dawn service since he joined the RSA in 1965.
Tauranga families have helped to plant more than 2000 hand-crafted poppies in the hills lining the entrance to the city's newest mall. Photo / Supplied
In an early tribute to Anzac Day, Tauranga families have helped to plant more than 2000 hand-crafted poppies in the hills lining the entrance to the city's newest mall.
The poppies were planted at Tauranga Crossing during the school holidays as an art installation.
COMMEMORATIONS:
Mount Maunganui
Dawn parade Cenotaph on Marine Parade – opposite Mount Drury 5.30 – Marchers assemble at Mount Drury for 5.55 march off 6 – Service begins
