Doug Ramsay stood at attention with his service medals proudly pinned to his chest in front of the Anzac monument as the Last Post and Reveille were played.
The 86-year-old had trained in the Air Force in the final months of World War II before joining the Army and being deployed to Japan in the New Zealand occupation force.
His wife served in the British Army during World War II. She is buried at the cemetery.
"My wife did three-and-a-half years in the British Army [and] she was in the occupying force in Germany at the time I was in Japan. I lost her five years ago. I come up here regularly. She was proud of her British heritage, and proud later to become a Kiwi, and a very proud RSA member," he said.
Mr Ramsay gathered with about 300 others among the graves at Pyes Pa Cemetery memorial on Anzac Day yesterday to celebrate the lives of the fallen.
Anzac Day was a special day for Mr Ramsay, not just to remember his wife, but to remember others that had fought and died.
"It's remembering comrades from back in those days and honouring the service of people that never came back, including relatives as well as acquaintances and all the others.
"I had a couple of cousins that were killed in the course of the war, and another that did three-and-a-half years as a prisoner of war and came back not the same person.
"I think it's very important that we should remember them," he said.
Barbara Northey also attended the ceremony - with her mother, her sister and her niece and nephew.
She was there to honour her father, Alan Northey, who was buried at the cemetery. "Dad actually spent nine months in Tauranga before the war [training at the airport] and then he went over to Bougainville. He was in the Pacific, in the Solomon Islands," she said.
Her niece and nephew - 6-year-old Marc and 12-year-old Marcia - were wearing their grandfather's medals.
"It's always been a day that's really important to us," she said.
Remember those with courage
by Betty Jeeves in Katikati
Anzac Day in Katikati was a well-drilled exercise which ran to time.
After mustering at the Uretara Domain, those assembled from the forces, emergency services, local groups and citizens were asked to fall in before a wreath laying ceremony.
They then marched to Katikati Memorial Hall where three members of the Legion of Frontiersmen formed a guard of honour at the door.
Katikati RSA president Peter Sparrow extended a warm welcome.
Receiving the Colours from local groups was former Katikati man, Sergeant Grant Couper of the Royal New Zealand Air Force based at Ohakea.
Reverend Brendan Gibbs conducted the service, and guest speaker Major Ross Horton, attached to the 6th Hauraki Regiment, gave an address.
Speaking of the sacrifice made during war time he said: "Every family in every town and city in New Zealand has been affected. Anzac Day is about commemorating all wars."
He paid tribute to those who have served, spoke of the gutsy can-do attitude of New Zealanders, of their strength, courage and commitment to the task, their integrity to carry it through and how they backed up their mates.
"Remember those with the courage to defend New Zealand," he said.
More civilians, fewer vets at dawn parades
As the number of returned soldiers gets less the numbers of people attending Anzac Day Services increases.
The dawn parades at both Waihi RSA and Waihi Beach RSA were well attended by both young and old and the moving dawn breaking ceremony was a poignant reminder of all those men and women who have served.
The two service clubs held a brief combined ceremony at 8am at Waihi Cemetery before the civil ceremony took place at Waihi Memorial Hall.