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On the road to the NZ Memorial in London with 32 war veterans
and Dave Dobbyn
When they were young they went off on
the big adventure, now they are back on the road again to the
dedication of the New Zealand Memorial in London remembering ‘the TIME of our
Lives’.
5 November 2006, 32 New Zealand war veterans gather in the morning
at Ohakea Airport. Maori and Pakeha, they’ve been selected
by ballot from all the Services.
They’re flying to London
for the dedication of ‘Southern
stand’ – The New Zealand War Memorial that has been
installed at Hyde Park Corner.
They’ll represent more than
quarter of a million New Zealand men and women who fought and
served in Europe, Africa, Asia and the Middle East over the past
century: the 28,000 who lost their lives in that service: and
present day New Zealanders too at home and abroad.
Gaylene Preston
joined them and filmed them on a journey very different from
the one many had set out on 60 years ago. They remember and reminisce – battles,
friends and brothers lost, new friendships, dangers they had
passed and love in a time of war. Sometimes they reflect on the
meaning of it all and the pity of it.
And they shop for a Marks and Sparks jersey or a top hat, ring
their wives (often), do their washing and wait - everyday things
that we all do because it’s peace time.
But on the day,
when Hyde Park Corner is tied down by anti terrorist soldiers
and helicopters and security is water tight because of an other
war: when Dave Dobbyn sings of home: when the Queen and Her family
come to salute them – and us all back home:
when the haka roars out across the Hyde Park Corner traffic,
the veterans march again with a pride in their past and their
present – which is our pride too.
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