A memorial display honouring the mounting toll of New Zealand soldiers killed in Afghanistan was a special feature at last weekend's Tauranga Arms and Militaria Show.
The show, into its 13th year, continues to be a crowd pleaser drawing hundreds of people interested in weapons and military history.
The deaths of three soldier overnight and two earlier deaths on August 4 of Lance Corporals Pralli Durrer and Rory Malone by insurgents gave an added poignancy to the display put together by an ex-soldier who served in Afghanistan in 2006.
Asking only to be known as Andrew because the display featured some of his weapons, he feared what would happen to Bamyan province once the New Zealand Provincial Reconstruction team withdrew in 2013.
He said that during the whole time he served in Bamyan, he never once heard people refer to themselves as Afghani.