A chilly and early start. Grace and I head off to find a place in the growing crowd. Biggest we have seen. The weather was fine but cloudy. It was probably a bit boring for young Grace but she hung in till the end. Her great grandfather (my dad) would have been really proud to know she was there. It may have put some small meaning into the sacrifice he made along with the tens of thousands of Kiwi's and Aussies who have been involved in the great wars and regional wars for the past 100 years.
In his case (not that he spoke often about it) he spend 4 years in the army and 3 of them in North Africa (Egypt etc) and Italy (Casino etc). While he came back alive he was far from being in good shape. He arrived back to NZ on a hospital ship with a shattered right elbow (machine gun round) and with pneumonia. Prior to that during those three years he also was injured when a mortar landed in the same hole he and his mate where in. His mate took the fatal blast and dad had shrapnel wounds and lost his ear drums. Can't imagine it. So yes I know he would be proud of Grace being there. So would my mum who also served for 4 years in the womens army corp in New Zealand.
Densely packed people for what was a really nice service
Dawn is breaking and the bugler plays out the familiar last post we all have grown up with. Haunting.
Two Harvards make their flypast
The service over people start to head to the beach to watch the sun coming up.
Grace and I went to Pilot Bay to have a small picnic while sitting on one of the bench seats overlooking the harbour. (I had more photos but accidentally deleted them!)
