In commemoration of the landing and sacrifice of New Zealand troops at Anzac cove on the Gallipoli Peninsula, the New Zealand government declared 25 April a half day holiday “Anzac Day”, commencing at 1:00pm 25 April 1916.
During April 1916 the main New Zealand contingent “The New Zealand Division”, including many¹ of the New Zealand troops that were evacuated from the abandoned Anzac cove area in December 1915, arrived in France from Egypt.
The Gallipoli campaign cost New Zealand nearly 7,500 casualties, including 2,721 dead.
During the WWI centenary period, fields of remembrance were created at various places around the country, including one for the fallen of the Wellington region, at the Wellington botanical gardens.
Wellington Field of Remembrance.
1. The New Zealand Mounted Rifles Brigade remained in Egypt, tasked with protecting the Suez canal.
From my urban forest I look out onto the bay. Often renowned for its wild winds, I often come across the Bay at calm.
Today it is a lovely shade of blue and soft looking like blue moleskin.
I see it through the trees and ferns which I won’t chop away (not entirely ) as they give me privacy from the neighbours.
Many trees here are cicada chewed. Those drag lines cut into the bark. I don’t know if cicadas eat tree ferns or not. I hope not.
When the bay is wild with the waves crashing onto the beach the sound travels up the valley. Sometimes the sound of the waves and the sound of the wind in the trees sounds the same.
Lake Malawi is the southernmost lake in the East African Rift system. It is one of the 10 largest lakes in the world and the third largest in Africa.
This lake is home to more species of fish than any other lake.
Aquarium keepers are mostly familiar with the wide variety of colourful and popular aquarium fish, Cichlids, of which there are about 1000 species in the lake.
The lake is also home to vast numbers of lake sardine (Engraulicypris sardella), an important food species.
Great Zimbabwe is a vast stone complex after which the country is now named.
There is now consensus that this complex was built by the Shona people. This was not always thus and some earlier archaeological work was done consistent with Einstein’s observation “it is the theory that decides what we can observe”.
A prior archeologist employed by Cicil John Rhodes was so convinced that the structure could not be of African origin that he ordered around 1.5 meters of top soil (containing the detritus of African occupation) to be removed from the complex and dumped in the veld.
Great Zimbabwe – Hill ComplexGreat Zimbabwe – Hill Complex
Today 100 years ago saw the end of the last major assault to secure the Ottoman position at Hill 60 at Gallipoli.
The unsuccessful attack on Hill 60 resulted in over 1,100 allied casualties and was part of the last major offensive of the Gallipoli Campaign during the war.
The August campaign included the Battle of Sari Bair ( 6 to 21 August) the Battle of Scimitar Hill (21 August) and the Battle for Hill 60 (21 – 29 August).
As part of the 100 year commemoration of New Zealand participation in the war, the Museum of New Zealand, Te Papa Tongarewa, features a truly magnificent and moving exhibit “Gallipoli: The Scale of Our War” that includes 6 sculptures at 2.4 times life scale.
Sculpture from “Gallipoli: The Scale of Our War” exibit.
On Saturday 6 July 1920, the only four horses that returned to New Zealand after service in the great war disembarked at Kings wharf in Wellington (out of about 10,000 that left NZ for war).
One of the best known was the horse Bess who served with Colonel GC Powles. She traveled to Egypt, Sinai, Palestine, France, Germany and England.
She became the model for an ANZAC monument erected to the memory of the ANZAC mounted troops at Port Said in Egypt.
Upon her death in 1934 (at the ripe old age of 24) the Colonel erected a private monument at her burial site.
Horse with rider, displaying historic New Zealand Mounted Rifles uniform, ANZAC Parade Wellington.
Saturday 25 April 2015 marks the 100th anniversary of the landing of mainly Australian and New Zealand troops on the beaches of the Gallipoli Peninsula. This was an attempt to secure the Dardanelles for the Allied navies but became a bitter eight month long campaign. This campaign saw the birth of ANZAC (Australian and New Zealand Army Corps) and 25 April became a public holiday of remembrance in both Australia and New Zealand (ANZAC Day).
For this 100th anniversary Wellington put on her finest, a new memorial park, (Pukeahu War Memorial Park) new exhibits at the National War Memorial and the National Museum (Te Papa) and a light and sound show on the walls of the Dominion Museum Building
and carillon tower (National War Memorial).
Lest We Forget
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. *
*Ode of Remembrance from the poem “For the Fallen” by Laurence Binyon.
The gardens surrounding our house have been layered with river rocks. While I have hated this format as a gardener since we moved here (each time you add a new plant, you have to move the rocks away, dig in gnarly clay, then re arrange the rocks – missing that all important feeling of Soil in Your Hands…), I had an epiphany. The rocks deter the neighbours cats from crapping in my garden! This benefit cannot be underestimated. I digress. A couple of years ago we built manuka framed vege garden boxes in our sun trap courtyard. We filled them with luscious soil and quality compost, with a drainage layer at the bottom, and off we went.
True not in the vege bed itself, but right next door…
The first summer I grew corn and carrots. Well the corn went wild, the carrots, despite being laid in a tape, curled into each other and kinda failed. The beans, were good, lettuces awesome, but the beetroot never grew large enough to eat. Of course the cherry tomatoes were prolific. i ended up making them into tomato puree and freezing them. The cucumbers were a delight. This year, I focused on cherry tomatoes, scarlet runner beans, lettuce, zucchinis and telegraph cucumbers. attempting beetroot again, but don’t want to pull them up just yet. in order to cat-pooh-proof my vege garden (and any soil topped garden), I use bamboo skewers. Cats cannot negotiate their way through skewers, unless they are micro cats. Coffee grounds for the snails, and the good old dishwash liquid and garlic spray for a white butterfly repellent. Tomatoes are coming on now, zucchinis flowering but not converting (need fertilization, so I bought some more). All organic seedlings. Nothing beats eating your home grown vege, and while I cannot sustain my family on these small quantities, I hope to convince my beloved to let me take over some of our recently cleared back yard….
This summer we put our house on the market. It didn’t sell for the price (or less than the price) of our registered valuation. So we decided to stay. in order to stay, we agreed that some ‘tuning’ was required, to shape it more to our liking, and be more comfortable all year round. Phase one involves installing a skylight, recoating our front deck , installing a heat recovery system and doing some tree trimming.
The skylight. in order to install a skylight in our truss roof, we needed to move some stuff. The gas line move itself was straightforward. Finding out we had a gas leak somewhere was not. Three tradesman hours looking for the leak. The electric cabling was next. this required adding wiring to the existing loom. of course, making big lengths of wiring creates an induction circuit, which causes energy saver bulbs to behave strangely. More tradesman hours.
now I am waiting for the builder to come and install the skylight. We are scheduled for late February. Watch this space….
