The sounds of bagpipes could be heard cutting through the early morning darkness around downtown Whangārei as Anzac Day commemorations got underway in Northland.
By 5.30am, hundreds of people rugged up against the morning’s chill had already lined Hannah St ready to march to Laurie Hall Park.
Children as young as six stood alongside veterans, whose medals proudly adorned their winter coats.
Among those to gather in the darkness were the North Caledonian Pipe Band.
Band member Leila Hamilton described the dawn service as an “emotive” time.
”It’s about taking time to remember those who fought for us. For me, it’s about my grandad.”
This year’s Anzac Day is the first in uniform for Private Borrell from Northland Company 36 Battalion.
He had just recently completed his basic training, he said.
“So I’m fresh-faced into the unit.”
He felt “very connected” to everyone that has come before him, especially family members who served in the past.
Andy Boorer, an ex-military serving in the British Royal Navy, joined the march this morning with his wife Fiona. He had served in the North Atlantic and was stationed in submarines.
The couple tries to attend Anzac Day services as much as possible: ”You should never forget,” Fiona, who is also from a military family, said.
During the march, a man held firmly to the framed portrait of a fallen corporal. At his shoulders were veterans, members of the military and the New Zealand Police.
They fell in step alongside youngsters from the Horahora and Kamo scout groups, Shackleton Sea Scouts and high school students from around the district.
As the sound of a single dream beat out, the march wound its way to Laurie Hall Park which heaved with members of the public.
Thousands of people filled the car park and spilled over the hill that gazes down upon the field of crosses.
The master of ceremonies warmly greeted the crowd: ”We gather here to remember those who entered the fields of conflict and did not return.”
A later speaker noted how Anzac Day has evolved to become a day not only to honour those who served but those who still serve.
He said it is a “sacred obligation” to honour those who gave their lives for this country and Australia.
The man described how there are around 140,000 living veterans residing in Aotearoa, who range in age from their early 20s to 100-years-old.
An eery feeling crept over the service as the names of fallen soldiers were said aloud by two Huanui College students - a tradition that has held firm in Whangārei since 2009.
”As the years march on, let us never forget their sacrifice,” one student said.
Image 1 of 4: A New Zealand Cadet Forces member salutes toward the field of crosses at the Whangārei Anzac Day dawn service. Photo / Michael Cunningham
The crowd stilled as a speaker from the New Zealand Navy addressed them.
”The First World War was largely named as the world to end all wars, but as we know that has not been the case.”
He said we must remember to “stand up to those who believe might is right.”
The speaker acknowledged Ukraine and Sudan, who remain ravaged by war.
In the wake of his address, representatives and leaders came forward to lay wreaths at the Cenotaph’s base as the sound of a lone bagpipe pierced the morning’s quiet.
Whangārei MP Dr Emily Henderson and Whangārei-based National list MP Shane Reti laid a wreath on behalf of the Government. Then came the Whangārei RSA women’s section, Whangārei Rotary and Freemasons of Northland.
In their footsteps followed a number of local youth groups that included members of St John’s youth cadets, Kamo Scout Group, Girl Guiding NZ, Whangārei Mariners, and local school students from Kamo Intermediate, Kokopu, Parua Bay, Pompallier College, Huanui College, Tikipunga High School, Whangārei Girls’ High School, Whangārei Heads School and Hurupaki School, to name a few.
Representatives from the Cook Islands were among those to lay a wreath.
Ngakiri Antonovich said a lot of people don’t realise individuals from the Cook Islands were also sent during WWI and that attending today’s dawn service honours them too.
”They made the sacrifice as well,” she said.
Antonovich only recently learned her great-grandfather from the island Aitutaki had served in the war.
The final moments of the Whangārei dawn service culminated in the crowd singing both the Australian and New Zealand national anthems.
Further north, up to 500 people attended the dawn service at Kerikeri Domain in a ceremony led largely by youth from Kerikeri High and Springbank schools.
Tuesday’s service had extra significance for the town’s war veterans because it was the first at the new memorial wall in Kerikeri Domain and the first full Anzac Day service since the RSA clubrooms were sold in 2019 and subsequently demolished.
Services since then had been either disrupted by the Covid pandemic or held at a makeshift memorial near the library, but the Kerikeri RSA promised “a pretty big comeback” this year.
Service personnel past and present made a short march from Cobham Rd to the new memorial wall in the pre-dawn chill, led by a lone bagpiper and student flag-bearers.
Students also recited speeches and read the roll of honour, while members of the high school’s kapa haka group Te Pou o Manakō sang the national anthems of New Zealand and Australia.
Fourteen members of the Royal New Zealand Air Force No 6 Squadron, whose ceremonial “home port” is at Bay of Islands Airport, attended the service and conducted a fly-past in a Seasprite helicopter at precisely 6am.
Also taking part were volunteer firefighters, police, St John personnel and members of the Kerikeri Cadet Unit, who posted a traditional catafalque guard at each corner of the memorial wall.
No 6 Squadron commander Alex Trotter said the ceremony was extra poignant for him because his last dawn service in Kerikeri was in 2019 before the clubrooms and old memorial were demolished.
The new memorial wall was “amazing”, he said.
“Many memorials are in places you only visit once a year. This one is accessible to the whole community, the whole year round, and it’s in a beautiful place.”
Kerikeri RSA president Bill Godfrey, a Vietnam veteran, put the number of people at the dawn service at up to 500.
”I’m extremely pleased with the turnout and extremely pleased with the performance of the young people.”
With veteran numbers dwindling year by year, Godfrey’s intention was to hand ever more responsibility for the service over to high school students.
The RSA had written up a “standard operating procedure” laying out the protocols for running the service, so anyone could do it in future.”We’re going to give it to the kids and say, ‘go for it’.”
That would also ensure Anzac Day commemorations continued even if no veterans were left.
”We need to keep doing it to promote the memory of those who were lost and to also uphold the honour and mana of the ones that are serving now,” Godfrey said.
Kerikeri’s RSA clubrooms were sold in 2019 due to falling membership and soaring costs of rates, insurance and maintenance. Members however met every Thursday in the Homestead Tavern.
The former RSA buildings have since been demolished to make way for an extension to a neighbouring retirement village.
The new memorial wall, which was funded by Veterans’ Affairs, is on Kerikeri Domain between Procter Library and the Chris Booth sculpture Te Whiringa o Manokō.
The crowd at Kerikeri’s civic service was smaller — about 200 — but they were treated to a flypast of a Royal New Zealand Air Force Hercules that roared over the flagposts at precisely 10am before banking sharply over the town centre.
Again, like the dawn service a few hours earlier, most of the speeches and formalities were conducted by high school students.
Jaluka Clarke, 17, spoke of his grandfather, John Clarke, who lived through five gruelling years of Nazi occupation on the island of Jersey.
As well as the hardships and loss of freedom his grandfather suffered, he came close to starvation in the final winter of World War II.
He was saved not just by the soldiers that fought to liberate Europe but also the compassion of New Zealand volunteers who donated, baked and packed Red Cross parcels for the starving island.
”I do not know them, but I am here because of them, and I will never forget them,” he said.
In Kaitāia hundreds gathered to commemorate Anzac Day in Kaitāia despite the chilly conditions.
The service was the second large service since the relaxation of the Covid-19 rules.
The crowd stood still and silent as the national anthem rang out across the park.
Kaitāia RSA President Colin Kitchen thanked everyone for attending what he described as a very moving ceremony.
Anzac Day commemorations were wrapped up late yesterday with a ceremony at the Waitangi Treaty Grounds in which Taa (Sir) Robert “Bom” Gillies — the only surviving member of the legendary 28 Māori Battalion — was expected to play an important role.
Sir Robert, of Rotorua, took part in a dawn ceremony at Ngaiotonga, on the coast south of Russell, and around 5pm was due to present the 28 Maori Battalion Campaign and Battle Honours Memorial Flag to Te Rau Aroha, the Museum of the Price of Citizenship at the Treaty Grounds.
Also taking part in the Waitangi ceremony were students of Te Kāpehu Whetū's Leadership Academy of A Company, a Whangārei-based partnership school established in 2014 to preserve the core values of the 28 Māori Battalion.
The 19-year-old disappeared without her wallet or mobile phone.
