Attendances were strong at Armistice Day services in rural Otago yesterday.
Crowd numbers at Wanaka were double those of last year, Upper Clutha Returned and Services' Association secretary Lynne Fegan said.
More than 40 people, predominantly veterans, attended the remembrance service at the Wanaka lookout and war memorial cenotaph.
And a similar number of veterans, RSA members and spectators assembled on Arrowtown's Memorial Hill for a 15-minute service.
Arrowtown RSA president Rupert Iles said even though veterans and members were getting older and "somewhat more thin on the ground", the local RSAs would continue to observe Armistice Day "into the foreseeable future".
Queenstown RSA president and Vietnam War veteran David Geddes said, "like any organisation", the RSA was "living in changing times and for us the challenge is to have an organisation that continues to flourish in the years ahead".
Mr Iles and Mr Geddes laid wreaths on the monument. Arrowtown piper Winston Wallace played as participants laid their poppies in an old soldier's helmet and paid their respects.
In Cromwell, about 25 people attended a service, which paused for two minutes' silence at 11am.
In Oamaru, North Otago RSA president Norm Foley spoke to between 35 and 40 people at a service at the Garden of Memories, followed by an address from Waitaki Mayor Alex Familton.
Members of the Oamaru Coastal Defence Restoration Group fired three rounds at 11am.
Armistice Day services are held to mark the 11th hour of the 11th day of the 11th month in 1918, when an armistice signed by the Allies and Germany took effect, ending World War 1.
