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Live: Anzac Day 2025: Commemorations taking place around New Zealand

Live: Anzac Day 2025: Commemorations taking place around New Zealand

NZ Herald24-04-2025

Anzac Day services are under way around New Zealand today.
The national remembrance day services begin at dawn and continue through the day.
Prime Minister Christopher Luxon will attend services in Gallipoli later today (NZT).
Anzac Day services are beginning around the country as Kiwis remember our fallen servicemen and women.
Thousands are expected at Auckland Domain on Park Rd for the dawn service, which also recognises the past and present service of thousands of men and women in the country's Army, Navy and Air Force.
After a 5.45am parade, the service begins at 6am at the Court of Honour and Cenotaph outside the Tāmaki Paenga Hira Auckland War Memorial Museum in the Domain.
'It is the day of the year for the RSA … the day we commemorate all our fallen soldiers," RSA president Sir Wayne Shelford told RNZ on Anzac Eve.
Governor-General Dame Cindy Kiro would be among speakers at this morning's service in the Domain, Shelford said.
In Wellington, the dawn service also begins at 6am at the Pukeahu National War Memorial Park in Buckle St, with the national commemoration to follow at the same site from 11am.
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War veterans are gathering at 6.15am to parade from Worcester Bridge to Cathedral Square for Christchurch's traditional dawn service.
Details of other Anzac Day events taking place in other parts of the country today can be found here.
There will be many opportunities to learn more about Kiwis' service in international conflicts over the past 111 years.
The doors open at Auckland War Memorial Museum immediately after the dawn service, with multiple programmes planned to help those interested in learning more.
There will be free entry until the museum closes at 5pm. The museum's underground carpark will also be free all day.
MyHeritage is also opening up free access to 2.3 billion historical records from New Zealand and Australia until April 29, including military records.
The Royal New Zealand Air Force is planning flypasts in various aircraft around the country today, including in NH90 and Seasprite helicopters.
A list of times and places for the weather-dependant fly-pasts is here.
Overseas Anzac services are also planned later today (NZT), including in Gallipoli, where Prime Minister Christopher Luxon will take part before travelling to Rome for Pope Francis' funeral the following day.
The Gallipoli services come on the 110th anniversary of the New Zealand and Australian troops landing on the beaches of the Turkish peninsula in a disastrous nine-month campaign that quickly turned to trench warfare and cost 130,000 lives - 2779 of them Kiwis.
April 25 was subsequently chosen as the annual day to commemorate all fallen servicemen and women across New Zealand and Australia.

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