Video: A moving Dawn Service at Napier's Soundshell for Anzac Day
It was a cold start for many down on Napier's Marine Parade for the Anzac Day Dawn Service, but the cold did not deter those who wished to come and pay their respects to members of New Zealand and Australia's armed forces, both past and present.
As the parade started outside the MTG Building, headed towards the Soundshell, a hushed silence came over the crowd.
The speakers from councils, armed forces and RSAs spoke beautifully of those who made the ultimate sacrifice and brought tears to the eyes of many.
The crowds were polite and careful of one another as the sun slowly rose over the shore and people made their way to the beach for a better view.
Then Te Matau a Māui, a waka hourua (double hulled voyaging canoe), slowly came into view along the shore as the sun started to peak over the horizon at the end of the moving service, saluting the dawn.
With proud thanksgiving, a mother for her children,
England mourns for her dead across the sea.
Flesh of her flesh they were, spirit of her spirit,
Fallen in the cause of the free.
Solemn the drums thrill; Death august and royal
Sings sorrow up into immortal spheres,
There is music in the midst of desolation
And a glory that shines upon our tears.
They went with songs to the battle, they were young,
Straight of limb, true of eye, steady and aglow.
They were staunch to the end against odds uncounted;
They fell with their faces to the foe.
They shall grow not old, as we that are left grow old:
Age shall not weary them, nor the years condemn.
At the going down of the sun and in the morning
We will remember them.
They mingle not with their laughing comrades again;
They sit no more at familiar tables of home;
They have no lot in our labour of the day-time;
They sleep beyond England's foam.
But where our desires are and our hopes profound,
Felt as a well-spring that is hidden from sight,
To the innermost heart of their own land they are known
As the stars are known to the Night;
As the stars that shall be bright when we are dust,
Moving in marches upon the heavenly plain;
As the stars that are starry in the time of our darkness,
To the end, to the end, they remain.
For the Fallen by Laurence Binyon. Source: The London Times (1914).
