Anzac Day

Anzac Day: Warm and sunny again. This is the day when the Australians and New Zealanders remember those who landed at Gallipoli on 25th April 1915 in such a disastrous battle. 2721 died, I believe. In New Zealand this is a public holiday, and takes place on the 25th, whatever day of the week it is. Shops cannot open until 1pm or face a hefty fine. There are dawn services in every community and then a morning service where the uniformed groups like Scouts, Girls Brigade etc and returned servicemen and women sing and listen to speeches and then march to the nearest memorial to lay poppy wreaths.
Our three boys are now in the Scout movement and so were part of the Waimate parade today. It's amazing how so many people from such a small community are involved in this, or just came along to be part of it.
As soon as the last note of the Reveille faded away, the town clock (which is the memorial we were all around) struck 11 o'clock - eerie!
When we got home Steve went off flying his planes, and the boys and I watched our next door neighbour build an amazing trap to catch some dogs that have been killing hens on farmland around town. This trap is so big and sturdy it could keep an elephant from escaping!
In the afternoon we went to Knottingly Park. This is an 83 acre park two kilometres out of town. The first tree was planted in 1878 and there are now 3000 planted trees there - a sort of arboretum and park. It's also the site of the town's cricket pitch, horse gymkhanas, has a flock of sheep in it, a playground, pine forest, pond and a powered campsite! It's an amazing space and you can run around, climb trees and feel really relaxed.
For tea we had our first meal from the Chinese/Chippie in town. The boys had fish'n'chips and ate it all up. Steve had chicken curry (Chinese??) and I wanted chicken and mushroom. What we both got was a small amount of chicken with mushrooms, peas and large chunks of carrot, broccoli, cauliflower, courgette and cabbage and a curry sauce or MSG sauce poured over. Probably won't bother repeating that, and hoping it won't be repeating on me later!
The photos are of the pipe band that led the Anzac parade; the boys in their uniforms; a wooden hut just as the bushmen settlers would have lived in in the 1860s; an amazing eucalyptus in Knottingly Park; and some of the beautiful autumn leaves.