As if on cue, the return last evening to New Zealand of the 19th rotation of the New Zealand Provincial Reconstruction Team (NZPRT), having completed a six-month deployment in Afghanistan, is a timely reminder that even in times of relative world peace there are soldiers in the theatre of war.
Most wear their poppies red, some white, others both and a few not at all.
The story of a World War II battle will be told in stop-start animation by three brothers using Lego and their pocket-sized Nikon camera.
War veterans and volunteers collecting money in Queenstown for Poppy Day have been verbally abused by people who believe the poppies are made in China.
War graves will be spruced up and events staged across the world, at a cost of $83.5 million, to mark Australia's Anzac Centenary.
Transtasman political leaders have condemned a Kiwi journalist for calling Australian World War I soldiers "bludgers, poachers and thieves'' - comments he refuses to apologise for.
A transtasman war of words has broken out, just days before Aussies and Kiwis mark Anzac Day, after a New Zealand journalist labelled the Diggers lazy "bludgers'' and "thieves'' in a radio broadcast.
An on-campus Anzac Day service will cater to a young generation keen to remember and thank their patriotic elders, organisers say.
Commemorative plaques will be unveiled at a special Anzac service at the Waitaki Boys' High School Hall of Memories on Tuesday.
As Anzac Day approaches, Fr Brian Fenton, of Wanaka, reflects on the horror of war but also the need to defend values and freedom.
A former TVNZ newsreader will lend his voice to Queenstown's Anzac Day concerts this year - a World War 2-themed show, being staged as a radio show, performed in front of a live studio audience.
An Australian Government plan to market a huge national commemoration of the 2015 centenary of the World War 1 Gallipoli landings has come up against national sensitivity about Anzac Day.
Although Fr Tony Harrison's six-month deployment to Timor-Leste as an army chaplain is drawing to a close, the Queenstown priest says the pace of activity remains the same.
Alexandra teenager Sarah Liley says it will be an honour to deliver the keynote address at this year's Alexandra and Clyde Anzac day services, the first time a politician has not been the guest speaker at the ceremonies.
Brigadier Dr Brian McMahon plans to travel with a weighty companion during the next year.
Gut instinct would have prodded John Key to cut short his Middle East trip immediately he was told of the Anzac Day helicopter crash.
Neighbours in the past often knew each other as a matter of course - across the back fence, in the street or through local organisations.
Lance Sergeant Edward Keith Loughrey was one of thousands of New Zealanders sent to the Pacific to fight the Japanese in World War 2.
Pam Jones' grandfathers went to war. She remembers them.
Queenstown RSA president David Geddes and his wife, Maryann, visited Gallipoli for Anzac Day commemorations last year. Mr Geddes spent 21 years in the RNZAF, including service in Vietnam, and while in Gallipoli visited a memorial panel at Lone Pine, where his maternal grandfather's name is listed.
