About 250 people paid their respects to the district's war dead at a special consecration ceremony in Rotorua last night in the lead-up to Anzac Day.
The ceremony was held to acknowledge more than 100 men from the region who died in the war and who have been commemorated by the installation of a field of crosses in front of the cenotaph in the Government Gardens.
The service also saw the planting of a seedling from the original Gallipoli Lone Pine donated to the city by Crown Research Institute Scion.
Members of Rotorua's cadet forces, the Highland Pipe Band and veterans joined members of the public and passing tourists at the service.
Rotorua mayor Steve Chadwick said the field would be in place until April 28 and installed each year around Anzac Day until the 100th anniversary of the end of World War I in November 2018.
