Anzac Day in Northland: We will not forget

Crowds at the Whangārei Cenotaph this morning. Photo / Tania Whyte

An air of solemnity has descended on Northland as thousands turn out to honour the fallen, and all those who have served their country, in Anzac Day commemorations.

Last Anzac Day commemorations events were cancelled due to the Covid-19 lockdown, and instead many Stood At Dawn in their driveways to mark the occasion.

But judging by the crowds today people could not wait to get back to show their respect at the region's cenotaphs and memorials.

A huge crowd gathered at Whangārei Cenotaph for Anzac Day this morning. Photo / Tania Whyte

The region's largest event is in Whangārei were marchers gathered outside the new RSA building in Hannah St, to march the short distance to the Whangārei Cenotaph in Laurie Hall Park.At 5.30am people were slowly trickling in outside the Whangārei RSA on a beautiful, slightly nippy morning. The crowd looks less than in previous years pre dawn march but hundreds more are expected to be waiting at Laurie Hall Park where the dawn ceremony was to start about 6.05am. Police have blocked off Hannah St and the march is expected to head towards Walton St and on to Robert St shortly.

Percy Blundell leads the way to the Whangārei Cenotaph. Photo / Tania Whyte

RSA members, school cadets and others involved in the parade fell in for the march.

Thirty names of WW1 veterans who never returned have been read out by the headgirls of Whangārei Girls High School, following a speech by Whangārei RSA president Kevin Peachey.

United Kingdom Defence Attache Wing Commander Andrew Bryant was the last speaker before the Last Post and the hymn of Gallipoli was sung.

Peachey and Echo Lillicrap were the first to lay a wreath and all the wreaths that were laid were blessed by Reverend Rapata Rahui.

A ceremony will shortly start at the RSA in Whangārei where invited guests, including mayor Sheryl Mai, will speak.

In Kerikeri Returned service men and women and emergency staff are marching.
Far north district council chief executive Shaun Clarke is speaking to the crowd about the loss of life during world war 1.

Lance Corporal Gemma Love from the Kerikeri Cadet unit places a poppy down by the flag. Photo / Jenny Ling

6:07am: There is now a minute of silence then the Last Post is being played.
The roll is now being called for WWI , II and the Vietnam war. The crowd collectively murmurs 'we will remember them'.

The bagpipes are sounding out for the playing of the wreaths .

An Anzac Day window display in a Kerikeri shop on the main street. Photo / Jenny Ling

6:13am:
Spring bank school head boy and head girl are now reading poems .

6:17am: The national anthem is being played and the crowd is singing along.

The parade is filing out and the crowd have been welcomed to lay poppies at the cenotaph.

Returned servicemen Toto Thompson and David Russell laying poppies at the cenotaph at Kaitaia's dawn Anzac service. Photo / Peter Jackson

Numerous speakers are talking about the sacrifice soldiers made, their courage and the impact on families. There is now a hymn being sung.

The march to the Whangārei Cenotaph begins. Photo / Tania Whyte

What is Anzac Day?:

Anzac Day is observed on 25 April. It commemorates New Zealanders killed in war and honours returned and serving servicemen and women.

The date marks the anniversary of the landing of Australian and New Zealand soldiers – the Anzacs – on the Gallipoli Peninsula in 1915. The aim was to capture the Dardanelles and open a sea route to the Bosphorus and the Black Sea. At the end of the campaign, Gallipoli was still held by its Ottoman Turkish defenders.

Thousands lost their lives during the Gallipoli campaign: 87,000 Ottoman Turks, 44,000 men from France and the British Empire. Among the dead were 2779 New Zealanders, about one in six of those who served on Gallipoli.

They may have ended in military defeat, but for many New Zealanders then and since, the Gallipoli landings signalled that New Zealand was becoming a distinct nation, even as it fought on the other side of the world in the name of the British Empire.

Dave Roughan honours the fallen in Whangārei. Photo / Tania Whyte

Crowds at the Whangārei Cenotaph for Anzac Day this morning. Photo / Tania Whyte