Anzac Day dawn service at Mount Maunganui. Photo/George Novak
A large crowd gathered at Memorial Park for the Tauranga Anzac Day Civic Service enjoying the sunshine and gentle refrains of the brass band.
Many students of Tauranga colleges added a distinctive tone to proceedings, along with many young families.
Crowd numbers swelled to at least 1000 for the parade, to the beat of a stirring military march.
The marchers were in place and everyone remained standing for the breaking of the flag.
People continued to filter in and there was a crowd of about 1200. Tauranga Mayor Greg Brownless was the first speaker.
Hundreds of people have gathered at the Mount Maunganui cenotaph ahead of this morning's dawn service.
The crowd is spilling onto the street which has been closed to traffic this morning.
Defence Force personnel have taken their positions at each corner of the cenotaph and Mount Maunganui RSA officials prepare to speak.
There is a silence hanging over the huge crowd broken only by the roaring waves of the beach a few hundred meters away.
A procession led by bagpipes has begun and has been greeted by a round of applause.
At about 6.40am, the Mount Maunganui dawn service has officially ended and the crowds which packed the streets, Mount Drury and the dunes has thinned.
However hundreds remain catching up with friends and family while taking photos at the cenotaph.
A series of young soldiers wearing suits and medals have individually marched up to the cenotaph and saluted it, each plucking a poppy for their green berets and placing it at the base of the structure before saluting again.
Poppies adorn the base of the cenotaph, where three wreaths sit and two handmade crosses, adorned with pictures and messages from children.
Memories etched into the old faces of veterans of 20th century wars were gently illuminated in the lights that bathed the Tauranga RSA cenotaph this morning.
The smaller than normal turnout by the community of about 1000 people nevertheless showed that the Anzac dawn parade and its service had lost none of its emotional grip.
The first rays of dawn had yet to probe the sky when the parade assembled for the short march to the Greerton cenotaph.
Marching together were ex servicemen, cadet forces and the sons, daughters and grandchildren of departed or incapacitated servicemen, all proudly wearing the medals handed down to them.
The parade made a solemn but orderly entrance, taking seats or remaining standing depending on their age or fitness.
In Omokoroa a large crowd surrounded a lone white cross with a flag pole at the Poppies at the Point dawn service at Crapp Reserve, to commemorate those who fought and died during wartime.
New Zealand soldier, Lieutenant Colonel Marcus Linehan, joined the gathering, led by Western Bay Mayor Garry Webber, to remember the fallen.
The Omokoroa Songsters sang anthems including Pokarekare Ana, with the crowd joining in.
A moving poem was read by Omokoroa Chief Fire Officer Ian Blunt, while his brigade stood at attention. Crowds later gathered for a family service to commemorate the fallen at the Omokoroa Point School.
In Katikati the main street was unusually silent as the highway was closed for the Dawn Service commemoration.
People gathered at Memorial Square under a clear indigo sky with the waning crescent moon above.
Later that morning many took part in the Anzac parade marching from the Uretara Domain to the square for the Civic Service and wreath laying ceremony. Many, including children proudly wore medals of their family members.
The several hundred-strong crowd at Whangamata clapped and cheered as professional "homegrown" surfer Ella Williams and her father Dean came from the sea on their surfboards, proudly holding aloft the flags of New Zealand and Australia.
The dawn Flag Ceremony - this year officiated by RSA Padre Terri Sorenson and assistant with Padre Ross Falconer the bugler - at Whangamata Beach continues to attract more people each year with crowds covering the area in front of the surf club, along the Esplanade and on the beach.
The new twist to the event was widely greeted with enthusiasm as Williams handed the flags over to Whangamata Area School head girl Molly Lain and head boy Ben Williams.
The surfers were taken out to sea in the Coastguard vessel GJ Ranger and dropped off beyond the breakers, braving the rough seas to bring the flags to shore, with a Whangamata Surf Club IRB keeping a close eye on the pair.
Just as the sun broke through the streaky clouds close to Clarke Island, the flags on the beach were lowered.
Whangamata Area School principal Alistair Luke then addressed the crowd, the Last Post was played and the flags raised again to the sound of the bugle playing Reveille.
Whangamata Civic Service
About 400 people turned out to the Whangamata civic service where they were welcomed by Whangamata RSA president Geoff March.
The service was conducted by Padre Terri Sorenson and Padre Richard Laurenson from the 6 Hauraki Battalion.
Guest speakers were Ltd Cmdr Mike Hester from the National Zealand Navy, Whangamata Area School head girl Molly Laing and head boy Ben Williams.
After the Roll of Honor and tributes paid to the Kiwis and Aussie who paid the ultimate sacrifice, wreaths were laid at the Memorial Wall of Remembrance.
"Why are we here at Dawn?" asked Colonel (Rtd) Brian Robert Hampton Monks while speaking at the Waihi Beach dawn parade.
"It is a very powerful symbolism," he said in front of the crowd.
Mr Monks was the guest speaker at this year's dawn service which took place outside the Waihi Beach RSA.
Starting his military career in 1951 as a Regular Force Cadet, Mr Monks was commissioned into the Corps of the Royal New Zealand Infantry five years later, and retired as a Colonel in 1986.
He served mostly in South East Asia where he commanded a rifle platoon during Malayan Emergency in 1958-59 then training and leading the Victor 6 rifle company in South Vietnam as part of 4 Royal Australian Regiment (4RAR) (ANZAC) battalion in 1971.
He recalled the harsh reality of the soldiers who were sent to the battlefield, whether they were "ready or not".
"A battlefield is unlike any other human endeavour," he said.
Mr Monks knows too well the price to pay and risks taken to serve his country.
On June 25, 1971, he braved his own safety in front of hostile fire in the province of Phuoc Tuy (Vietnam) to deploy his troop and conduct assault attacks toward the North Vietnamese army regiment. Seven were dead as the result of it and large quantities of ammunition were captured by Mr Monks' troop.
His bravery got him to be promoted Lieutenant Colonel in 1973, two years after.
At the dawn service, he invited locals to "cheers for the living and the dead" before wreaths were laid by local militaries, organisations and schools - Waihi Beach primary and Waihi college.
Dawn Service at Muruika war cemetery at Ohinemutu in Rotorua.
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