Ceremony honours war dead (+video&pics)

Ngatiira Peita pays her respects to her great-great uncle Waretini Rukingi during a consecration ceremony for the Rotorua District Field of Remembrance yesterday. Her uncle was killed in World War I. Photo / Ben Fraser

About 250 people paid their respects to the district's war dead at a special consecration ceremony in Rotorua last night in the lead-up to Anzac Day.

The ceremony was held to acknowledge more than 100 men from the region who died in the war and who have been commemorated by the installation of a field of crosses in front of the cenotaph in the Government Gardens.

The service also saw the planting of a seedling from the original Gallipoli Lone Pine donated to the city by Crown Research Institute Scion.

Members of Rotorua's cadet forces, the Highland Pipe Band and veterans joined members of the public and passing tourists at the service.

Rotorua mayor Steve Chadwick said the field would be in place until April 28 and installed each year around Anzac Day until the 100th anniversary of the end of World War I in November 2018.

The field was blessed by Reverend Ngarahu Katene and the song In Flanders Fields was sung by a combined high school choir before the playing of The Last Post and Reveille by bugler Ken Douglas, who was using a vintage World War I bugle that was also played at Gallipoli 100 years ago by former Rotorua man and Gallipoli veteran Fred Johnson.

Image 1 of 6: Field of rememberance consecration ceremony Photo/Ben Fraser

After the consecration the seedling was planted by two of the four winners of a recent "My World War I Hero" essay competition run by the Rotorua Museum and the Ngati Whakaue Education Endowment Trust. Helping to plant the seedling were Kate O'Leary from John Paul College and Te Kura Kaupapa Maori o Ruamata's Naianga Tapiata.

Anzac services
•Dawn Ceremony
Where: Ohinemutu, Muruika cemetery
When: Saturday, 5.45am for 6am start

•Civic Parade
Starts: Cnr Whakaue and Fenton streets, 9am
Ends: Energy Events Centre, 9.20am

•Civic Memorial Service
Where: Energy Events Centre
When: 9.30am