As families headed off on the great storm-ravaged New Zealand road movie that is an enduring holiday tradition - to bach, beach, spectacle and family gatherings for the annual autumn headless chocolate rabbit festival Easter has come to represent in our evolving calendar of culturally and hemispherically confused rituals -
Joanne McNeil: Gadgets help keep kids quiet
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Technology keeps the kids busy on road trips. Photo/Thinkstock
Born to parents fundamentally shaped by service in World War II - mum a WAAF at Bomber Command and dad in the Royal Tank Corps before being taken prisoner - and later daughter-in-law of an imprisoned conscientious objector whose wife bore white feathers, alienation, hunger and children beaten up at school, I haven't been to an Anzac Day service since the anti-Vietnam war student protest days when we burnt a flag and all got arrested.
This year, so far away in both time and distance, our little rural village is having the first Anzac service at the local obelisk for years. I guess earlier, old soldiers went to the dawn parade in town so there was no need, but there are precious few old soldiers left now. In fact my dad's Christchurch branch of the Ex-Prisoners of War Association had to wind up for lack of a quorum. Now my mother - always very proud of membership of the RSA - is dead and can no longer wear her medals on the big day though, I think I might break the habit of a lifetime, go along, join in and lay some roses in her honour.