Four police officers were present at the vigil but did not intervene.
Veteran activists Jon Minto and Penny Bright were among the crowd and were joined mid-way through the vigil by Martyn Bradbury and Dotcom.
Dotcom said he was attending as a citizen, not an aspiring politician, to protest the "illegal" drone strikes.
"The drone attacks are illegal under international law and New Zealand is participating in illegal activity by aiding and abetting the United States in killing people with drones.
"We know that the GCSB is providing intelligence to the NSA.
"It's something that I think New Zealand should not engage in specifically because a lot of people are being killed by these drone strikes. A lot of civilians are being killed."
Investigative journalist Jon Stephenson spoke at the vigil of the human cost of conflicts in the "so called war on terror" in Iraq and Afghanistan.
It was important the vigil was "peaceful, dignified and gracious", he said. "That was stressed by the organisers from the outset."
The greatest disruption during the vigil came from residents unsympathetic to the cause. A grey ute slowed down while passing the group, with a woman in the back seat leaning out the window to yell "go home, leave our street, leave our street and go home" to the amusement of the protesters.
"I think there's been a lot of spin, obfuscation, even outright lies from successive governments and the New Zealand Defence Force about our role in countries like Afghanistan and on the war on terror," Mr Stephenson said.