Editorial: Anzac more than just a day

Lest we forget.

The 100th anniversary of the disastrous Anzac landings at Gallipoli in April 1915 is almost upon us. Thousands are expected to attend Rotorua's multiple services to mark the occasion.

As a member of the district's WW100 committee, I have been privileged to be part of a team of people from many different parts of our community who have given up their time to help plan events.

But our work is not just for this year, we plan to hold other events to mark different aspects of the war until the end of centenary commemorations on the 100th anniversary of Armistice Day on November 11, 2018.

The district's Field of Remembrance will be set up for the first time this Anzac Day, which will see a field of crosses surround the cenotaph in the Government Gardens. Each cross will have the details of the men from our district who died during the Great War.

We are also running an essay contest for local schools and funding has been received for the repair and upgrade of the Te Arawa Soldiers Memorial.

One project close to my heart is the search for a bugler who we are hoping can play my great-great uncle Fred's bugle on Anzac Day.

It's the same bugle he played at Anzac Cove in 1915 and around Europe during the war.

The story appeared in yesterday's Rotorua Daily Post.

Uncle Fred and his brother Charlie were professional soldiers and departed New Zealand with the Main Body of the New Zealand Expeditionary Force in October 1914.

Carved into the bugle are the places Fred served throughout the war, places whose names are now part of New Zealand's history of conflict - Egypt, Anzac Cove, Bapaume, Coxyde and Ypres.

Right up until his death aged 99, Fred suffered from terrible nightmares about the war. Even at night, when we usually put aside the cares of the day, the horrors of war stayed with him. Every night, for more than six decades.

And now, our Government is sending more of our young men and women to faraway lands. I'm just not entirely sure why.