Rain all part of the tribute in Hawke's Bay Armistice commemoration

The rain fitted the occasion as about 200 people sheltered in a paddock near Napier to mark the 104th anniversary of the signing of agreements which led to the end of World War I. Photo / Paul Taylor

It was wet, but the rain fitted the occasion as about 200 people sheltered in a paddock west of Napier on Friday to mark the 104th anniversary of the signing of the agreements which led to the end of World War I in Europe.

Known as Armistice Day, it commemorates the moment on the 11th hour of the 11th day of the 11th month in 1918 that the Allied Forces and Germany agreed the conflict would cease.

The paperwork had been signed at Compiegne in France at 5.45am that day.

About 100,000 New Zealand service personnel saw active service in the war from 1914 to 1918, about 18,500 losing their lives and forever remembered on November 11 each year, and on Anzac Day, April 25.

It rained, but it didn't dampen the occasion as Armistice day was marked at Rissington. Photo / Paul Taylor

Among those to survive were New Zealand Expeditionary Force members George Kay, John Robin Harris Cooksey, Herbert Samuel Hughes and Bright Ernest Williams, and NZ Rifle Brigade member Arthur George Williams, all of whom were to settle on farm blocks at Rissington.

At the time of his death, aged 105 in 2003, Bright Williams had been the last-surviving New Zealand veteran.

Just in time for the commemoration, Soldiers Settlement Rd had just the previous day had its place on the Poppy Places Register formalised, with the sign now sporting the poppy which is becoming more familiar around the country denoting streets with names linked to the war years.

Officiating, Rev Di Woods said in the commemoration the conditions were nothing compared with what the men had gone through in the trenches and battles.

Co-organiser Ruth Dawson, a Rissington Community Board member who lives in Soldiers Settlement Rd, said later: "For our forefathers it was months, and years. For us it (the rain) was few minutes' discomfort."

Up to 300 people braced the weather, including a couple from Oregon, US, tagging the event into their itinerary, a cyclist who'd biked from Napier – having said before he would if the weather was good enough, and six bike-riding member of the Patriots Defence Force Motorcycle Club riding from Auckland especially for the commemoration.

They joined local service veterans and RSA representatives, Scouts, Country Women's Institute members, locals and the Hastings District mayor for the commemoration on the Absolom family bloc, with a special feature the servicemen's redwood tree carving by timber sculptor Hugh Tareha, who died earlier this year.

The tree is also on the poppy places register.