Latest from Anzac Day Memories

Preparations in full swing

Preparations for commemorative ceremonies at the Gallipoli Peninsula are in full swing. Reporter Anna Leask is there.

War diary gets Facebook following

Good Friday, April 2, 1915. Private Claude Carrell ate his breakfast in bed and pulled out his diary.

Children lay wreaths for fallen dads

The sons of a fallen Kiwi and Australian soldiers laid wreaths down at the new Australian Anzac memorial in Wellington.

Running the Turkish gauntlet - with mules

Garibaldi Bitossi spent seven months in the living hell that was Gallipoli. Yet the Hunterville veteran never wore his medals, nor attended Anzac Day commemorations.

Turkey: Where the Johnnies and the Mehmets lie side by side

On a sombre drive in Turkey, Wynne Gray shakes his head at the futility of the deaths of so, so many young men in a foreign land.

Gallipoli 100: Tony Robinson uncovers kiwi ANZAC history

Sir Tony Robinson uncovers New Zealand ANZAC history while filming his television series retelling kiwi war stories to commemorate the 100 years since World War One.

Neil Finn revives Anzac anthem

Neil Finn has re-recorded the 1940s Kiwi classic Blue Smoke — a song written and first played on a WWII troopship with lyrics about a soldier’s hopes to return home — with one of the musicians who played on the original.

Memories of a teenage coastwatcher

In 1942, when young radio operator Johnny Jones was sent to Auckland Islands as a radio operator, he recalls a country on edge.

Coastwatcher's son steps in to restore Ranui base

On March 26, the last of the southern coastwatchers, John Stuart Jones, was to have voyaged to the Auckland Islands with an expedition to restore his old home in Ranui Cove.

Apiata on love, war and Anzacs

As a young boy Willie Apiata sat close to his grandfather on Anzac Day and was puzzled by the laughter that mixed with sadness, and eyes that "watered just a little bit".

Anzac day brings communities together

With his dad's medals proudly pinned to his chest, Julian Price waits to join the parade. Townsfolk are still spilling out of Mackenzie Community Centre in Fairlie, surprised to see rainclouds replaced by autumnal sunshine.

ANZAC Day 2014: Auckland's dawn service

Thousands of people assembled outside the Auckland War Memorial Museum this morning to commemorate New Zealand's "contribution to freedom".

ANZAC Day 2014: Mt. Maunganui remembers the fallen

On the day to remember the fallen, huge crowds gathered to pay their respects in Mt. Maunganui.

ANZAC Day 2014: Auckland's dawn service highlights

Watch highlights from the Auckland War Memorial Museum as thousands gathered to commemorate New Zealand's "contribution to freedom". courtesy Maori Television

The hero behind the white cross

Married for just a month, he couldn't wait to enlist.

Reflections on wars and all who served

Kiwis commemorate April 25 as one today, from the child learning about war history, to the veterans who saw fighting at close quarters

Alan Scott: Myths of Gallipoli - a century on, it's time to think again

'At the going down of the sun, and in the morning, we will remember them." Another Anzac Day - although it's not the big one - next year will be the centennial of that dreadful exercise in military futility known in English as the Gallipoli Campaign.

Courier loses treasured war medals

The daughter of a World War I veteran is distraught after her father's medals were lost by a courier company.