Wednesday - ANZAC DAY

My 3rd favourite day of the year. Here is how our day panned out. Awake and 4am to be at the airforce/army base by 5ish. WOW!!!
As soon as you enter you get this overwhelming feeling that this is the one day that you feel absolutely lucky to be alive and its all to do with those who fought for our freedom!! and the aussie's know how to celebrate them.

The service was to be held with 5th Aviation unit, they had a memorial built underneath some palm trees to remember those that have fallen, specifically for 12th June 1996 when two Black hawks collided with each other during an anti terrorism exercise killing 20 of their own people. The people on base still remember this day and you could still see the effect this had on the people of 5th Av Regi. Just like in NZ we remember the Huey that crashed only two years ago on ANZAC day.

As you walk towards the memorial there were loud speakers playing the sounds of artillery and machine gun fire it was intense!! All the men were dressed in suit and tie and ladies in respectable dress as if in mourning. Our boys tho turned up in their SD's (This is the dark blue pants, tie and blazer with a pale blue shirt and dress hat). I was very proud of our kiwi boys and i think they would of done NZ proud!
They held the service doing prayers and speaches until the sun rose. Then they offered a cooked breakfast with beer! Kinda funny cause even though its 7am it felt ok to be drinking at that time of the day - it seemed as if it was a toast.
Heres some photos: (Sorry only took three)

This is memorial as we approached

The cooked breakfast

The tribute in the centre of the table - There was a candle in front

After the breakfast we decided to to head to the parade that they were going to have along the strand at 9.30. The guys went home and got changed and then came and met us and we walked down.

The parade was AWESOME! They do not wear poppies here though, but sprigs of rosemary! Courtesy of google we found out why. Why? Because for the Australians poppies are worn on remembrance day which is in November and wear sprigs of Rosemary on ANZAC day as a symbol of remembrance (personally its around the wrong way, but hey) The significance of the rosemary is that it is suppose to enhance your memory - so symbolically helps you to not forget those that had fallen.

Here are some photos of the parade:

Mounted veterans

The crowd

Old army ambulance

Injured veterans

Marching troops

Fly over

The photos arent the best, as it was very difficult because we were in a very bad spot, but we felt the vibe.
The parade went on for ages. Towards the end of the parade, was pretty much schools, and their was hundreds of them. Personally i dont see the need for schools to be in the parade, yes they are the future but ANZAC is to remember those who have been.
We were having a laugh about it we had kids and we needed to pick a school just go to one of the parades at least then they come to you haha.

After this we pretty much went home for a few drinks untill midday when the resturants starting serving their lunch menus and went out for lunch to a place called monsoons by everyones leisure boats. That was pretty much it for the rest of the day. :)

See yas next time