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This year could have been the biggest turnout of Kiwis ever in honouring their war dead, Anzac organisers believe.
Thousands of people, young and old, attended services of remembrance around the country and overseas in a graphic illustration of the strength of the Anzac spirit.
Yesterday marked the 92nd anniversary of the landing of Australian and New Zealand troops on Turkey's Gallipoli peninsula at the start of an ill-fated British-led assault that cost this country more than 2700 soldiers over eight months.
In Wellington, thousands packed in front of the Cenotaph as about 150 veterans and their families led the dawn parade the short distance along Lambton Quay.
Christchurch's internationally renowned singer, Hayley Westenra, sang the national anthem before a pipe band led the marchers off towards Pipitea Marae.
Wellington Returned Services Association president David Moloney said: "It's much larger than we have had for some years. I think Hayley Westenra helped pull a lot of them in."
"It was very special," the singer said. "I didn't expect so many people would be there."
A protest, calling for New Zealand troops overseas to return home in the grounds of Victoria University's law school that resulted in two people being arrested, struck the only sour note in Wellington.
A record crowd of more than 12,000 attended the dawn service at Auckland's War Memorial Museum, which was also the scene of anti-war protest. In Mt Maunganui, people were treated to an airborne spectacular as Harvard warbirds, piloted by RSA members, flew across the sea from the east, passing over the white cenotaph by the Mount beach in the first, cloudless light of day.
About 4000 people attended the dawn parade in the Bay of Plenty town, making up for last year, when wind and rain forced the cancellation of the service for the first time in more than 30 years.
Mount RSA president Ces Hughes said the turnout was growing every year and this year was among the biggest yet.
"We see all these youngsters come along," he said, adding that talks given by old soldiers about Anzac Day had fuelled schoolchildren's interest. "We tell them to try and get their parents to bring them down."
Mt Maunganui is home to the country's largest RSA, with 5000 members, 900 of them returned servicemen and women.
The oldest is in his late 90s and 150 marched in the dawn parade.
However, the hill up to the cenotaph proved difficult for one old soldier with a walker, but his companion joked that he would be fine to "run over a few toes".
On the march down, another veteran fell, taking several colleagues with him, but all got to their feet uninjured and carried on.
Vietnam veteran Terry Verrall had missed the parade only once in 36 years, last year when it was cancelled. "It's always good to see the kids here turning up," he said. "It's good to see nearly all the Vietnam boys out too."
The Mount RSA has 25 Vietnam vets and 50 who served in Malaya.
Mr Verrall's son, Dean, a former member of the Infantry First Battalion at Linton Army camp, had attended the parades with his father since a child. "I always turn up to these Anzacs to keep the remembrance of the soldiers who have fallen," he said. "It's a tradition that's going to carry on for a long time."
In Patea, south Taranaki, however, vandals desecrated the site set up for the town's dawn service, smashing and knocking down crosses arranged around the town's cenotaph.
Patea Returned Services Association president Ken Howe said six or seven of the 80 crosses were smashed, with a number pulled out of the ground.
In Christchurch, RSA president John Suttie estimated 8000 turned up on a clear day for the dawn service in Cathedral Square.
"It would be the biggest turnout we've had for a few years," he said.
Among those were a large number of veterans from Vietnam, Malaya and later conflicts, as well as good turnout of World War II veterans.
Prime Minister Helen Clark attended a morning service at the Mt Albert War Memorial.
