"When you see the flag going up and the national anthem starts, there's strong New Zealand pride, and in a way, it makes me feel good because we're over here doing something for our country."
For Private Geoff White, serving in Afghanistan's Bamiyan province, Anzac Day was also a welcome change from the daily grind of duty in the war-torn country.
The 26-year-old from Balclutha is an electronics technician in the New Zealand Army.
"Basically, I service the radios, and occasionally I go on formal repair team patrols where we go out to fix broken down vehicles and then bring them back."
But yesterday, Pte White was a cenotaph guard at the camp's Anzac Day dawn service at which about 120 New Zealand soldiers joined about 30 American soldiers for the commemoration.
Although winter was almost over in the province, Pte White said being stationed high in the mountainous terrain meant it was still chilly - much the same as it is traditionally in the south of New Zealand.
Pte White said he had only been in Afghanistan for about a month and still had five months to serve.
The dawn service was his first outside New Zealand, he said.
"It was a bit more meaningful than being at a service in New Zealand - it's a bit more special.
"You're a long way away from home and family, and it hits you what it must have been like for those soldiers."
Commemorating Anzac Day during overseas deployments provided serving defence personnel with a deeper sense of pride, a service in East Timor heard.
Australian, New Zealand and East Timorese soldiers joined dignitaries from the three nations in the capital Dili yesterday.
East Timor is the only global area of operation where the Australian and New Zealand defence forces combine under a single force, just as they did at Gallipoli 95 years ago.
"You feel like you're carrying on the tradition of Anzacs from the past," said Captain Jeong Park, of New Zealand.
"There is certainly a lump in the throat as you hear the national anthems played and look around at the faces of the young men and women that are serving their countries here today."
