Oamaru’s dawn service this Anzac Day was a stark contrast to the town’s main service and parade at 10.30am, which was accompanied by howling winds disrupting wreaths and speakers.
About 1000 people attended the service and hundreds the later.
Speaking at the service Councillor Jim Hopkins thanked those for coming, as they were asked to do.
"None of us are being asked what several thousand young New Zealanders were asked to do.
"We’re not being asked to feel what they felt. The tension, the fear, the shock of cold water as it came up to their chests.
"All we’re being asked to do today is to remember."
Kelli Williams delivered the RSA message at the main service, which asked the audience not to romanticise New Zealand’s history.
It was not just the world wars that we needed to reflect on, but also the bloody history of New Zealand’s colonisation, the audience was told.
"If we want to remember our country’s history, we need to start teaching all of it."
She acknowledged the realities of war and that our soldiers were not all good people, but that did not mean they should be forgotten.
Anzac Day was about remembering the suffering, so it did not happen again.
