Huge crowds return to Anzac services
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Dame Trelise Cooper at Leigh.
Servicemen with the NZ Navy and Air Force marched over the Memorial Park bridge at the end of the Puhoi ceremony.
At Matakana. Photo, Emma MacDonald.
Keith Tennant, left, and Thomas Dowling.
After two years of cancellations and disruptions, Anzac Day 2021 dawned bright, warm and clear across the Mahurangi region, prompting an impressive turnout at local parades and services. Speakers at Puhoi – historian Richard Hern – and Leigh – JP Vince Anaki – reminded the crowds that New Zealand had, in both world wars, sent a disproportionately high percentage of its population to fight – and it had suffered correspondingly huge losses. Meanwhile, at Warkworth, RSA president Bob Harrison said the challenges and sacrifices of Covid-19 were in many ways similar to those of wartime.