ANZAC - A Day of Remembrance

Young and old gathered to commemorate those who served in Military operations for their countries. Dawn parades, services and wreath laying were held in every town and city, no matter how big or small as today is ANZAC day.

At 6.25am I was pulling out the drive in darkness. No stars were twinkling but it was reasonably mild. I was eager for a good sunrise to mark this day but that wasn't to be the case, instead there was thick eerie cloud hovering over the estuary with a gentle outline of Mt Grey in the distance. It was wonderful to share dawn breaking with fellow blipper kiwilizzie by my side. We ambled down to the beach, which was vast and empty, the sea was quiet and the coastline smothered in seamist, a sobering mood for today. We decided to wander along the stopbank of the Ashley river for a while and stumbled across the Taranaki Walkway which proved to be a surprise in the calmness of the morning, a few calls from ducks, geese and pukekos with the odd squawk from white-faced herons echoed round the estuary while a friendly fantail twittered and flittered around as we wandered by. It was a wonderful way to start the day, thanks L for your company, I thoroughly enjoyed showing you this amazing place right on our doorstep :)

It was by chance hubby was going to the hangar, so I tagged along  just in case something was happening at the airfield. You can imagine my delight seeing the Spitfire and Mustang fueling up in preparation for a flypast during our local ANZAC service to honour those who served. My shorter lens just didn't hack the pace of these fast moving planes when in the air so instead a couple of ground shots. Above is the Mustang and the Spitfire is in extras.

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.

PS I'm thrilled you all enjoyed yesterday's Kingfisher, thank you for all the stars, hearts and words, so very much appreciated :)