Tauranga's Anzac Day dawn service enters a new era on Sunday when hundreds gather to honour those who died in the wars fought by New Zealand.
It will be the first time that Tauranga RSA's Anzac Day dawn service is held at the new cenotaph built outside the club's new home
in Greerton, formerly Fahy's Motor Inn.
Club manager Graham Howard said the cenotaph faces a big carpark, offering a much better venue for the service than the confined area outside the old clubrooms next to Tauranga Hospital.
"We are all looking forward to it," he said.
Guest speaker will be Major Roger Earp, of the 6th Hauraki Battalion. The Tauranga-based territorial forces officer spent six months commanding a patrol in the Punjaw and Warras districts of Afghanistan during 2004-05, stabilising a society that had been in turmoil for years from invading Russians and then the Taleban.
The prayer and blessing will be taken by Rev Bronwyn Marchant of St George's Anglican Church, with a senior student from Tauranga Girls' College taking the reading.
Big crowds are also expected to attend the dawn service at the Mount Maunganui Cenotaph on Marine Parade.
Mount RSA general manager Peter Moss said the beach setting made it a particularly moving ceremony, particularly when the sun came up over the sea and a World War 2 Harvard flew over the thousands gathered below for the service.
Guest speakers will be Mount Maunganui College's head girl and boy, Hannah Brewer and Sam Hughes, with the prayer and blessing taken by Baptist pastor Chris Haines.
There will be a firing party from the Haurakis, together with representations from the Navy and Air Force.
The head girl and boy from Te Puke High School will be guest speakers at the Te Puke RSA's dawn service held at the town's Memorial Hall.
Katikati RSA's guest speaker will be Lieutenant Commander John Beadsmoore, an executive officer on board the RNZN frigate Te Mana.
