Call to contain Gallipoli crowds

The thousands of young people who travel to Gallipoli each year may soon need to find a new way to honour war veterans.

Congested services stressed this year's Anzac Day pilgrimage, delaying the New Zealand service by more than half an hour.

An RSA spokesman confirmed yesterday that Turkish officials and Anzac Day organisers were discussing limits to the number of people allowed at the service in Gallipoli.


"We have two of our senior people there [in Turkey]," RSA spokesman Bill Hopper said. National President John Campbell and a national vice-president would return with news of the changes by the end of the week.

New Zealand's ambassador to Turkey, Jan Henderson, has suggested shifting the New Zealand celebration to August 8, the anniversary of the taking of Chunuk Bair, the highest point on the peninsula.

Monday's Anzac Day ceremony drew an estimated 20,000 visitors, many of whom slept on the beaches overnight to ensure they got good positions.

The crowds delayed traffic and left rubbish barrels overflowing.

Prime Minister Helen Clark said things might change for the 100th year anniversary in 2015. She had left Prince Charles waiting for more than 15 minutes at the Chunuk Bair memorial after being caught in a huge traffic snarl that shut down the narrow road to the hilltop.

One Turkish official said an estimated 700 buses took people to the various memorials on the Gallipoli Peninsula. Most of the drivers parked on the side of the road, creating a line of parked buses several kilometres long.

The vehicles carrying Prince Charles and Helen Clark were separated in the traffic, and Prince Charles arrived first.

For much of the next 15 minutes he sat by himself, flicking through a copy of the commemoration services.

The number of Anzac Day visitors has more than quadrupled over the past 10 years.

- additional reporting by NZPA