Volunteers at the Queenstown Mall, Steamer Wharf, O'Connell's Shopping Centre and Fresh Choice and New World supermarkets welcomed a steady stream of donations and tales of familial connections to New Zealand's wars in exchange for poppies.
The symbols were left over from last year and made by a disabled group for the Christchurch RSA.
Queenstown RSA president and Vietnam War veteran David Geddes said collection buckets were taken around the resort's tourist hot-spots and during the opening weekend of the Arrowtown Autumn Festival. Queenstown volunteer firefighters bar-hopped with buckets on Friday night.
About $16000 was raised last year in the Wakatipu region and the same amount, or more, was hoped for this year. Almost $2 million was raised nationally in 2011.
Funds were channelled into the welfare of veterans and veterans' immediate dependants, Mr Geddes said.
"We think we do extremely well here because we get out ... and we have a very supportive community."
Asked if Poppy Day caused confusion in multicultural Queenstown, Mr Geddes said Commonwealth citizens certainly knew what it represented, although visiting Britons were sometimes surprised, because they wore poppies on Remembrance Sunday in November.
"New Zealanders and Australians are aware of the significance, and a surprising number of Asians as well.
"The poppy is becoming more and more a symbol of remembrance - we've just been doing it for 90 years."
This year's Anzac Day on Wednesday will mark the 90th anniversary of the dedication of the Queenstown Memorial Gates.
The lakefront landmark and gathering point for the parade was officially opened on Anzac Day in 1922, after two years of community fundraising.
Mr Geddes said the project to upgrade the cracked walls of the monument was ongoing. He hoped talks with the Queenstown Lakes District Council would speed up repairs.
Commemorations begin with an assembly at the memorial gates on Marine Pde at 9.15am.
The march through the streets to the Queenstown Memorial Hall begins at 9.30am.
The Anzac Day service will be held in the hall at 10am, with council chief executive Debra Lawson as guest speaker.
Music While You Work is a specially commissioned Anzac Day concert featuring a cast of Wakatipu performers, the Queenstown Jazz Orchestra and former TVNZ newsreader Dougal Stevenson.
It is on at Queenstown Memorial Hall at 2.30pm and 7.30pm.
Tickets for the concert cost $15 for adults, $10 for children and $40 for families - two adults and up to three children.
Mr Geddes said production costs were met by sponsors and grants, so the estimated $10,000 raised by ticket sales and the cash bar would go towards the $3 million hall upgrade.
