Speaking from East Timor this week, Trooper Lundon Williamson, of Palmerston, said his tour of duty had been "pretty surreal".
"You take a lot of things for granted back home, but you learn to appreciate them here."
Tpr Williamson has been in East Timor as part of the Australia-led International Stabilisation Force for five months and is due to come home in about a month.
The 20-year-old Burnham-based soldier is an armoured light operational vehicle driver with the reactionary force.
His job is to drive the vehicle when troops are called to distress situations or needed to provide security.
Life in East Timor was far different from that in New Zealand, he said.
It was not the sort of place where he could just walk down to the supermarket.
He had to take precautions and always be alert to what was going on around him.
"We've seen all sorts of different animals, too, and hungry kids are always running up to you, wanting food."
Anzac Day this year would be special, he said.
The day would start with a dawn service and the usual Anzac Day ceremonies in the army compound.
Commemorations would finish with the traditional Australia versus New Zealand rugby league game at Dili Stadium.
He was a member of the New Zealand team, which had been doing some training and "should be OK", he said.
"[Anzac Day] is pretty significant. It means a bit more to you because you're serving.
"And it gives you something to think about, knowing you're doing this almost 100 years later [after Gallipoli] and you're part of one of the last Anzac collaborations going on."
After that, he was looking forward to his homecoming and a few weeks off to catch up with friends and family, particularly his parents in Palmerston, Georgina and Warrick Williamson.
NZDF overseas deployments at April 11, 2011
- 470 operationally deployed forces (in Afghanistan, East Timor, Solomon Islands, Egypt, the Middle East, Sudan, Iraq, South Korea, and the Antarctic).
- 641 personnel deployed on overseas missions/exercises.
- 41 non-operational overseas postings (defence advisers/attaches and defence personnel attached to New Zealand embassies and high commissions).
Includes 76 NZDF personnel deployed in East Timor.
Source: NZDF
