WW1 Centenary Celebrations

ANZAC day this year was quite a big deal due to the World War Centenary celebrations (which will continue on for the next few years). In Wellington, Pukeahu National War Memorial Park was completed and opened in time for ANZAC day. It is quite a cool public space. In the week leading up to ANZAC Day on the 25th April there was a sound and light exhibition at Pukeahu, telling the story of several New Zealander's experiences of the war.

Te Papa also has an amazing exhibition on at the moment called Gallipoli: The scale of our war which is free to visit and will be open for the next four years. This was the work of Richard Taylor and his Weta Workshop team. It tells the stories of eight New Zealanders who were involved in the war in different ways. They have been created 2.4 times human size. The attention to detail is amazing, the skin looks so real and you can see individual beads of sweat. Below are a few pics I took on my phone, but I probably needed my DSLR to really do it justice. The exhibition has been hugely popular and exceeded all expectations in terms of visitor numbers. At popular times some people queued for a couple of hours to get in.

Several Wellington buildings also joined in the commemoration. Below is Old St Paul's which had the history of both World Wars projected on to it.