Thirty years after David Gray gunned down 13 people at the small seaside settlement of Aramoana, survivors and victims' families will meet near the sad scene to pay tribute - and remember.
After an altercation with his neighbour Gray, 33, armed himself with a high-powered semi automatic rifle and opened fire.
He murdered 13 men, women and children and wounded two others - little girls who were both shot in the stomach but survived.
One of the victims was a local police sergeant who was one of the first officers at the scene and tried to stop the killer.