Tomorrow, when New Zealanders of all ages and backgrounds gather to honour the fallen, it will be just six days since the opening of the transtasman bubble, and the renewing of our close ties with Australia and our mates across the Ditch.
As we joined forces a century ago to fight on the blood-soaked battlegrounds on the other side of the world, so — finally — we can now fully resume our special relationship.
We can visit each other’s holiday hot spots, have long-awaited family reunions and conduct business, all while remaining vigilant lest our common enemy, Covid-19, return to the community.
It is, on that note, a special Anzac Day for another reason.
It is a welcome return to a full programme of dawn services, march-pasts, military parades, posy laying and concerts to acknowledge the sacrifice of all who served in war.
Last year was an Anzac Day like no other.
It is always sombre — this is a commemoration, not a celebration — but in 2020 it was a day conducted in the shadow of Covid-19 Alert Level 4 with all public events banned.
While the ‘‘Stand At Dawn’’ campaign — people standing by their mailboxes, street after street — was a rousing success, and for some it will remain a way to be involved in the day, it is a relief to return to the normal sights and sounds of Anzac Day.
The day, established to mark the landing of Anzac forces on the Gallipoli Peninsula in 1915, has evolved in recent years, reflecting the loss of most surviving world war veterans, and the need to expand the Anzac blanket to include new New Zealanders whose war links might not be to Chunuk Bair, the Somme or Monte Cassino but to other parts of the globe, and other nations that suffered equally.
We are also rightly more aware of the role women played in times of war, and this year marks 80 years since the formation of the Women’s Auxiliary Air Force.
The WAAF played a key role on the home front during World War 2, and nearly 5000 Kiwi women served.
This year is also the 75th anniversary of Jayforce, which included about 12,000 New Zealand troops landing in Japan following the surrender to participate in the nation’s demilitarisation and demobilisation.
Whatever your reason, whatever your link, whatever your feeling about the futility and pain of war, this is the day to pay your respects and quietly reflect on the events of the past.
Remember your lost loved ones, support your comrades (including the ones with the Aussie twang), and be thankful for the bubble in which we live. Lest we forget.
