Kaipara College student Alice Krzanich never knew her two great-great-uncles from Waikato, Ted and Herbert, who died in the Anzac campaign at Gallipoli.
"I've gradually come to know what they went through at Gallipoli, and feel they're not just distant relatives any more, they're breathing people.
"And I really wantto follow in their footsteps."
Alice, 17, is one of 10 secondary school students who have won an essay writing competition and will now accompany an official New Zealand delegation to Gallipoli to commemorate the 90th anniversary of the Anzac campaign.
Alice's essay outlined the footsteps of her great-great-uncles from Albany, in Western Australia, to Gallipoli.
"I can't really imagine what it [the anniversary visit] will be like," Alice said last night. "It's just overwhelming. It'll be emotional, no doubt about that."
Mt Albert Grammar School student Thomas McGarry wrote his essay as an interview with his great-grandfather Lieutenant William Titley Palmer, who suffered gunshot and shrapnel wounds at Gallipoli, but survived.
He said he was looking forward to the 10-day trip, which starts on April 20.
"I'd really like to see where my great-grandfather fought, the kind of terrain they were covering, what he was fighting for."
Prime Minister Helen Clark praised the winners for taking an interest in New Zealand history.
"Many were motivated to enter the essay competition through family connections with the Gallipoli campaign, while others were keen to explore the characteristics of the Anzac soldiers and how their service and sacrifice helped shape the people we are today."
* The winners are: Alice Krzanich; Thomas McGarry; Megan Rorich, Macleans College, Howick; Anna Smith, Waikato Diocesan School; Paul Smith, Napier Boys High School; Hannah Wilson, Paraparaumu College; Jennifer Niven, Samuel Marsden Collegiate, Wellington; Guy Williams, Nelson College; David Dingwall, Christ's College, Christchurch, and Natalie Hall, Gore High School.
