On the weekend of 26-27 September 2015 Roy and I got to be guests of the New Zealand Army. I was the successful bidder in a charity auction for this WWI themed weekend

We were collected from home and taken to the nearby Trentham Army Camp, settled in to our VIP accommodation and given a tour of the camp before lunch in the Mess

After lunch we headed into Wellington to visit the Ataturk Memorial


followed by the Point Jerningham saluting base, the guns that saluted departing WWI soldiers had been replaced

by 25pdrs made in 1941. We were allowed into the storage shed and got to clamber over them

We then moved on to the "Gallipoli - Scale of our War" exhibition at Te Papa, the national museum.
The Major acting as our host had fortunately arranged for us to jump the 2.5 hour queue


The main figures in the exhibition are 2.5 times life size


but there are smaller dioramas as well (54mm)


There are also many interesting artefacts including this prayer book in Te Reo Maori which stopped a bullet

We then moved on to the Dominion Museum and the Great War Exhibition






And of course visited 'our' diorama


Then came the highlight of the day.
I had the privilege of reciting the Ode of Remembrance during the Last Post Ceremony at the Tomb of the Unknown Warrior,  National War Memorial.


Similar to this.

We will remember them

Finally back to Trentham Camp for dinner in the Mess followed by drinks in the Officer's Mess and an early night

Wow, that's a pretty special day out!

Day two was focused on the re-enactment of the marches over the 555m Rimutaka road summit.

During WWI approximately 60,000 of New Zealand's almost 100,000 troops marched from Featherston Camp over the Rimutakas to Trentham Camp as a final pre-embarkation exercise.
For many it was there last ever journey in New Zealand. The first of these marches took place just over 100 years ago.



We got up early, made earlier by the change to daylight saving, to get to the summit to be ready to distribute breakfast to the marchers. They had started at about 3am and reached the summit at about 7:15am


Lead by relatives of the original marchers in replica uniforms, supplied by Sir Peter Jackson. A small group of current soldiers descended from the original marchers were in modern uniform and the rest of the 250 marches were in civvies, many wearing relatives medals.

A memorial for the Marches was unveiled


and a Last Post Ceremony was held as the sun rose behind the mist


Roy and I then became very popular with the marchers by helping distribute bacon and egg sandwiches

The marchers then continued down the Rimutakas to Upper Hutt.

While they marched we popped back to the Mess for a hot breakfast and also got to watch the second half of the England - Wales game in the Officer's Mess

Another Last Post Ceremony was held at the Upper Hutt War Memorial at 11am with a lot of public in attendance

A close look at some of those faces reveals how long a day they have had

Finally the Marchers arrived at Trentham Camp to a large lunch and an open day




All the marchers completed the march with no major medical or other issues. 
The two oldest marchers were 82 and 84

A great weekend, our thanks to the New Zealand Army

 

You can't really say anything else.

Lovely photo's Paul.
Thanks for sharing those ! 
Cheers - Phil

Quote from: Techno on 30 September 2015, 06:08:41 AM
Lovely photo's Paul.
Thanks for sharing those ! 
Cheers - Phil

Some are mine the rest are Roy's. It was a great weekend