Garth George: Following trail of long-ago Anzac heroes

Ninety years ago thousands of young soldiers left New Zealand to fight and die in their hundreds on the Gallipoli Peninsula on the far side of the world.

The expeditionary force chugged away from Wellington harbour on nine troopships at just 10 knots on a seven-month journey.

On Wednesday a contingent of 159 New Zealanders from all parts of the country left Wellington Airport on an RNZAF Boeing 757 at 804km/h. Their trip will last just six days before they too land on the beach at Anzac Cove on the Gallipoli Peninsula.

The men of the Expeditionary Force went to Gallipoli and to war; today's contingent go to honour the memory of those who fought and fell on the 90th anniversary of the battle that was to provide a seminal event in our history and burn the name Anzac forever into the annals of military history.

They range in age from World War II veteran Harry Bioletti, 91, of Devonport, to 16-year-old Emily Maxwell of Wellsford.

Mr Bioletti served as a platoon commander with the 29th and 30th Battalions in the Pacific from 1941 to 1945 and after the war taught at Mahurangi College at Warkworth.

Emily is a student at Epsom Girls Grammar and a Sea Cadet.

Mr Bioletti, and 34 other men and women who served in wars for their country (World War II, Malaya, Borneo, Vietnam) are on the flight, chosen by ballot and hosted by the Department of Veterans Affairs.

In a sense they represent for us the Gallipoli veterans, none of whom still lives in New Zealand and Australia.

Emily is one of 10 teenagers on the flight who all earned their place by winning essay competitions.

All three of the Defence Force services are represented, including a band, a Maori cultural group, medical staff and servicemen and women ranging from the host for the journey, the Chief of Defence Force, the genial Air Marshal Bruce Ferguson (and his wife Rosemary) to the lowliest privates, able seamen and aircraftsmen, all of whom will be involved in ceremonies marking the anniversary at Anzac Cove Chunuk Bair and elsewhere on April 24 and 25.

Then there is a considerable media contingent, of whom I am the senior by virtue of age.

The 1914 force went to war via Hobart, Albany (Western Australia), Colombo and Aden before arriving in Alexandria and entraining for Cairo nearly three months later.

Today's force is going in peace via Cairns, Penang, from where this message is sent, and Dubai to Istanbul before bussing for Canakkle on the shores of the Dardenelles just across the Narrows from the Gallipoli peninsula - in just three days.

Mind you, there is much to be said for a leisurely sea voyage to get where you're going rather than rocketing through the atmosphere 10km above the Earth, crammed into a steel tube for 12 ever-longer hours.

And by the way, three politicians are on board, too - United Future leader Peter Dunne, National's John Carter and Labour's Dover Samuels.