1st Battalion members share a laugh 60 years on

Rotorua has hosted what may be the final reunion of the 1st Battalion, who were sent to the Malayan jungle to hunt communist terrorists 60 years ago.

On the shores of Lake Rotorua, with the New Zealand flag blowing in the wind above them, the 28 men and their families gathered yesterday at Muruika Soldiers' Cemetery in Ohinemutu to remember those who could not be there.

Tomorrow they will discuss whether to wind up this year; to lower the flag and march together formally one final time.

Reverend Tom Poata kept the service running "bloody well ahead of time" as he had the men laughing throughout.

"We are to encourage each other with hope," he said.

"Which I suppose is what you did, and continue to do."

He brought them all to their feet for the "strangling of the hymn".

"The singing of the hymn I mean."

The remaining members of the 1st Battalion, New Zealand Infantry Regiment rise for a hymn at the 60th reunion. Photo/Stephen Parker

Some of the men seemed weighed down by the medals pinned to their coats as they used their walking sticks to rise to their feet.

Yet each hymn they sang with barely a glimpse down at the words.

In his speech Rotorua's Ken (Heta) Hingston said this was a time for thinking but also enjoying.

"We are getting too damn old," he said.

"We used to be racing to the bar, now we're going up to the bar just to prove a point.

"You can all leave here feeling proud."

The men, now mostly in their 80s, are very different than those that boarded the boat all those years ago.

There were murmurs and solemn looks as the names were read of those who did not make it.

After he read the list Peter Anaru said a few words.

"Greater love have no man, than he who lay down his life for his friends," he said.

"This morning we pay our respects to the men that fought beside us and in recent years answered the final call."

Silence fell as The Last Post signalled the lowering of the flag.

A karakia was shared at half mast before it rose again to the tune of Reveille.

The national anthem was then led by students of Rotorua Girls' High School.

The flag is raised for what may be the final reunion of a Kiwi battalion sent to the Malayan jungle to hunt communist terrorists 60 years ago. Photo/Stephen Parker

The 900 men of the 1st Battalion, New Zealand Infantry Regiment left their homeland aboard the TSS Captain Cook on November 28, 1957, bound for Malaya - now Malaysia.

Patron of the battalion Colonel Ina Launder said most of them were only 20.

He said they were an amazing group of people who had gone on to become principals, judges, photographers and even a prime minister.

"We are all still very close and loyal to our comrades no matter what their rank," he said.

"We get a lot of humour among us."

Fellow battalion member Mike Wilks said they recently gave their flag to a new battalion of army recruits.

"When I saw the new brigade, I thought they were just so young and so tall and then I realised, that's what we looked like 60 years ago."

Despite the years that have passed, the men still behave like boys squabbling, teasing each other and sharing jokes.

The wife of a battalion member, who chose not to be named, said it was better for them to say goodbye while they could.

"Some of them are so frail now," she said.

"You can see all of the jokes still going between them, they are still trying to out-do each other.

"I am sure in their photo at least one of them will be pulling a funny face."