The armistice, which ended World War 1, was signed at 11am on the 11th day of the 11th month in 1918, but it has since become a day to remember all those who died in wars.
Ninety-nine years after the fighting stopped on the Western Front, Oamaru veteran Kelli Milmine read a section of the wartime poem In Flanders Fields at the Armistice Day ceremony in the Garden of Memories at Oamaru on Saturday morning.
She said the Canadian physician Lieutenant-colonel John McCrae, who wrote the poem in 1915, "chose to live in hope" rather than focus on the horror of war.
Mrs Milmine, who served for 20 years in the Royal New Zealand Air Force as a helicopter pilot, told the crowd of about 90 it was important to honour the sacrifice others had made in what was again an "unsettled time in the world".
At Wanaka there was a small turnout at the Chalmers St memorial in perfect weather. Retired navy lieutenant commander Lyal Cocks started the service by saying last week’s snow and rain would perhaps have been a better backdrop to remember those who died on the Western Front and other World War 1 battlefields.
Pete Smalley and his daughter, Ella, of Wanaka, attended the service to honour Ella’s great-grandfather, Jack.
"It was Ella who really wanted to come to the service as her great-granddad died earlier this year."
"He was in the Second World War and was blown up and lucky to be alive, so we use this as the place to remember him every year and we’ve followed through with that on Remembrance Day," Mr Smalley said.
Alexandra celebrated the day a little differently as Caleb Middendorf fired a 25-pound field gun from the lookout above the town clock. A small group of RSA members and onlookers joined him to commemorate the end of World War 1. The shots reverberated around the hills and were heard as far away as Clyde.
