Communities came together at dawn services around the country yesterday to honour and remember Anzacs.

As a young boy Willie Apiata sat close to his grandfather on Anzac Day and was puzzled by the laughter that mixed with sadness, and eyes that "watered just a little bit".

It happens every year now on April 25: Maori Television morphs into our very own history channel, writes Greg Dixon

With his dad's medals proudly pinned to his chest, Julian Price waits to join the parade. Townsfolk are still spilling out of Mackenzie Community Centre in Fairlie, surprised to see rainclouds replaced by autumnal sunshine.

Thousands of New Zealanders and Australians have gathered at Gallipoli to pay tribute to the men who went through 'suffering and horrors' to carry out their duty.

One person died at today's dawn Anzac service in Wanganui.

Thousands of people assembled outside the Auckland War Memorial Museum this morning to commemorate New Zealand's "contribution to freedom".

Thousands turn out to services across New Zealand to commemorate on Anzac Day.

At the going down of the sun and in the morning We will remember them.

Married for just a month, he couldn't wait to enlist.

Kiwis commemorate April 25 as one today, from the child learning about war history, to the veterans who saw fighting at close quarters

Motor racing has always been a family affair for Aucklander Richard Moore.

'At the going down of the sun, and in the morning, we will remember them." Another Anzac Day - although it's not the big one - next year will be the centennial of that dreadful exercise in military futility known in English as the Gallipoli Campaign.

The daughter of a World War I veteran is distraught after her father's medals were lost by a courier company.

Youth representatives and children of Gallipoli veterans will receive 100 special passes to Gallipoli Centenary celebrations next year.

He carried an injured Gurkha for 54 hours through thick jungle and swamp. He then hid the wounded soldier and later returned with a search party. Lieutenant Colonel John Milbanke Masters was named as New Zealand's inaugural Anzac of the Year, an award recognising comradeship, courage and commitment. It was recognition of a life in which Masters put others first, from life-saving deeds on the battlefields of Indonesia, which earned him a Military Cross, to campaigning for the rights of Vietnam War veterans exposed to the defoliant Agent Orange.

Anzac Day shopping laws should be a "blueprint'' for all holidays in which shops are required to close, the Retailers Association says.

Click here for a full list of Anzac Day services around New Zealand.

All war veterans would be eligible for a veteran's pension under a Labour government, leader David Cunliffe said yesterday.

They helped fight off the Imperial Japanese Navy at Guadalcanal and half a century later kept the peace in East Timor. They were also NZ's first search and rescue helicopters.

George Ward was a tank gunner in Italy in WWII. The Anzac veteran, who still lives in the house he built in Henderson after the war, raised three daughters alone after his wife died of cancer. He turned 99 last Saturday.

The sounds and sights of New Zealand at war are being brought to life this week at the Auckland War Memorial Museum.

People paying their respects at Anzac Day dawn services can expect low cloud and rain in some parts of the country.

With a generous smile and glinting eyes, Dipak Ghale speaks passionately and softly about the importance of family.

In the closing minutes of this stirring story of 14 New Zealanders sent to the front in World War I, the main character, explained for the umpteenth time that he was not a soldier.

When Paul Southwick embarked on a lengthy search for his father's World War II acquaintances, the best he hoped for was a few words of remembrance, maybe a photo.

North Islanders can look forward to more settled weather for their short working week, but may want to keep their raincoats handy for Anzac weekend.