Our Anzac Day Highlights

Bella went to a Dawn Anzac Service at a cemetery. She saw some soldiers with guns. The soldiers stood very still around the cenotaph and crowds and crowds of people gathered around it. She said, "I felt happy at the ceremony because I saw soldiers that had came back from war and young soldiers who are going to go to the war."

Ivo went to the Auckland Museum Dawn Parade and saw lots of soldiers. He told us, "There were Army, Navy and Air Force soldiers. There were helicopters that sounded like machine guns. There was bagpiping and The Last Post was played. When it was played the flags were lowered to half mast. It was really dark at the start when we arrived at 5:30pm. The museum had red lights shining on it. The sky started to get lighter. We sang the New Zealand national anthem and the Australian anthem too."

Aaron went to the New Lynn Anzac ceremony and saw some soldiers marching and some bands. He explained, "There were some soldiers on a truck with some army medals. There were people holding some flags. I saw some Australian flags and New Zealand flags. Anzac Day was special for me because there were soldiers that came back from the war and didn't die."

Rafael went to the Anzac parade in New Lynn. He got an ANZAC100 book. A young soldier gave it to him. He said, "I was sitting on my dad's shoulders when I was watching the Anzac parade. There was like this red truck which had seats on the back. People were sitting on it. There were loud bands that hurt my ears. It was nice and cool to watch the parade."

Lorin made some big posters showing the whole story of how the ANZACs went to Gallipoli. He explained the pictures to us. "Firstly the soldiers went to Egypt then they sailed to Gallipoli on a troopship. Hurt soldiers were lifted up onto the troopships by a special crane because they could not climb up the ladder."

Joe went with his family to a Glen Eden War Cemetery for the Anzac Service. He saw some flags. Some were from people who were not in the war. Some Scouts were holding flags. Some soldiers sang songs and everyone sang the national anthem in Maori and English. He explained, "We went to the RSA afterwards for morning tea. There were some real swords and guns up on the wall."