Many attend Anzac Day dawn service in Paraparaumu

REFLECTION: The Paraparaumu War Memorial Gates before the Anzac Day dawn ceremony.

Hundreds of people gathered for the Anzac Day dawn service at the Paraparaumu War Memorial Gates this morning.

The 6.30am service included prayer, speeches, laying of the Paraparaumu RSA wreath, playing of the Last Post, lowering of flags, firing of a blank cartridge from a field gun manned by gunners from 163 Battery, a minute's silence, flyover of a light aircraft as a salute to the fallen, to the raising of flags when the Reveille was played.

ALL AGES: Some of the many who attended the Anzac Day dawn service in Paraparaumu.

Marching in the parade, for the first time, were students from Paraparaumu College and Kapiti College "who we see as increasingly important in bridging the generation gap by understanding the historical significance of the past," Paraparaumu RSA president Chris Turver said.

"It's a sobering thought that the students you see before you are not much younger than those, who as the flower of New Zealand's youth, went to war in 1914, some to be lost in Gallipoli, and others on the battle fields of Europe."

The names of 14 Paraparaumu men who died in World War One were read out by two college students.

"At the time these men went overseas, the total population of Paraparaumu was just 350 men and women, and the names read out represent almost 10 percent of the male population," Mr Turver noted.

Moreover, "We're here to honour the memory of not only of the men and women who died in World War One, but the 35,000 New Zealanders who gave their lives from the Boer wars of the 1890s to modern day conflicts like Afghanistan."

CLEAN DOWN: Gunners from 163 Battery clean a field gun not long after a blank cartridge was fired.

Major Brett Morris, the 163 Battery Commander from the Royal New Zealand Artillery, said threats to New Zealand were varied and developed extremely quickly.

"They range from natural disasters through to cyber attacks, and from terrorism to the threat of large scale war.

"All too commonly our forces have to deal with people who have no regard for human rights or the laws of war."

He said it was a credit to New Zealand that its military personnel had "established a record of service that is second to none".

Otaki MP Nathan Guy, who read a message by Prime Minister Bill English, said it was now over a century since the Anzac troops arrived in Gallipoli on the morning of 25 April 1915.

"Though time moves on we will never forget the campaign that took the lives of nearly 2800 brave New Zealanders who travelled far from home to serve their country."

LEST WE FORGET: A scene from the Anzac Day dawn service in Paraparaumu.

Anzac Day brought people together in various parts of the world to "honour all New Zealanders who have continued to serve in the fine tradition of courage and compassion demonstrated by the Anzacs at Gallipoli".