Dunedin's RSA choir members are hoping to sing their own tributes at next year's Anzac Day commemorations at Gallipoli in Turkey.
The trip, which might involve up to 60 of the all-male choir's 82 members, was "a dream which is almost a reality", spokesman Graham Nicholls said yesterday.
The choir has received support from Veterans' Affairs New Zealand and hopes the Government will provide a grant towards expenses, or free travel on a Royal New Zealand Air Force plane.
Approval was still required from the Australian Government, which takes turns with New Zealand hosting events in Turkey, but Mr Nicholls said the choir had been told approval was a formality.
If all goes to plan, the choir will sing at the dawn service at North Beach to an audience of up to 15,000 people.
"I am hoping between 50 and 60 men will go, but we need at least 40," Mr Nicholls said.
"We are a choir.
"We can't send a quartet."
Fundraising would be a major task, he said.
Even with free travel, at least $100,000 would be needed for accommodation and other expenses.
A CD and DVD were planned, and the choir would apply for grants and sponsorship.
Members would also contribute.
Choir member Brian Miller suggested the trip last year as a goal for the choir's centenary in 2019.
However, Mr Nicholls said when he and Mr Miller looked around the rehearsal room and saw the age of their friends - most are at least in their 60s and the oldest is 90 - they realised 2019 might be too late.
There was much enthusiasm from members when the idea was floated, but also some wide eyes, Mr Nicholls said.
Singing at Gallipoli, the Turkish peninsula where Australian and New Zealand forces first fought together as Anzacs in 1915, would be "the experience of several lifetimes" for choir members, he said.
The 800-strong Otago Infantry Battalion was one of three that landed on the peninsula on April 25, 1915, and fought in the eight-month Gallipoli campaign.
Gallipoli was also the reason the choir began.
Jimmy McNish, a first bass and member of the Otago Mounted Rifles, was so moved by the sound of Turkish soldiers singing in the trenches he vowed to form a choir of returned soldiers if he survived the war.
Initially known as the Returned Soldiers Choir, it changed its name when sailors and airmen swelled the ranks.
Fewer than half of its present members are returned servicemen.
