ANZAC day 2014

posted May 12, 2014, 2:21 PM by Admin hycnz
Many of our members took the opportunity to go cruising on their boats during the Easter period leading up to ANZAC day on Friday.

And then on Friday it was ANZAC day which allowed our members to reflect on New Zealand service people who have died protecting our county as well as those who continue to serve in the NZ forces.

This is our club member Arthur Pene's thoughts on ANZAC day:


Kia Ora,

Today we remember all our whanau who were killed fighting for our freedom and how we live today.

I think of my Great Grand uncle Charles Rangiwawahia who was at Gallipoli on this day, he was killed in Belgium.

I also think of my dad's two brothers Uncle Pani and Jim who were killed in Italy. We had other uncles that were killed and others like my dad and his cousins who fought in WW2 and returned home as changed young men and what they went through while they were on active service.

To them all, it is a day that we salute and honour these men.

Tena Kautau Katoa


Friday  25th April - ANZAC day


A brief history of ANZAC Day

Anzac Day occurs on 25 April. It commemorates all New Zealanders killed in war and also honours returned servicemen and women.

 Remembering Gallipoli, 1916
 Anzac art 1916

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

 Thousands lost their lives in the Gallipoli campaign: 87,000 Turks, 44,000 men from France and the British Empire, including 8500 Australians. To this day, Australia also marks the events of 25 April. Among the dead were 2721 New Zealanders, almost one in four of those who served on Gallipoli.

 It may have led to a military defeat, but for many New Zealanders then and since, the Gallipoli landings meant the beginning of something else – a feeling that New Zealand had a role as a distinct nation, even as it fought on the other side of the world in the name of the British Empire.

 Anzac Day was first marked in 1916. The day has gone through many changes since then. The ceremonies that are held at war memorials up and down New Zealand, or in places overseas where New Zealanders gather, remain rich in tradition and ritual befitting a military funeral.


Comments