Thousands turn out for parade
Thousands turned out for Wellington’s Anzac street parade, even if some of the vintage hardware didn’t survive the journey.
The parade hit a few bumps in the road on Friday when 100-year-old vehicles from director Peter Jackson’s World War I-era fleet overheated and came to a grinding halt.
Jackson himself was a victim of one of the breakdowns, forced to march 200 metres to a vintage ambulance while being cheered by crowds in Willis St.
RSA national president Don McIver also had to hitch a ride to Pukeahu National War Memorial Park after his World War I-era Crossley truck came sputtering to a stop.
After trying to wind up the magnetic truck several times, and topping up the fuel, driver Andrew Neal resigned himself to pushing the vehicle to the side to let the show go on.
‘‘I knew it was getting hot because it was getting harder and harder to drive,’’ Neal said.
But a few technical difficulties couldn’t rain on the parade attended by thousands on the perfect sunny 18-degree Wellington day.
Crowds four-rows deep packed the streets along the 2.8-kilometre route, which wound its way from Parliament to the new war memorial park.
Around Parliament, crowds had begun to gather from as early as 10.30am. Young and old had climbed up around the cenotaph to secure a good view, where they sat swinging their feet waiting for the parade to begin.
Within Parliament grounds, horses waited in the shade in their World War I leather finery, impatiently.
Waiting for the parade to start, you could be forgiven for thinking you were on a film-set.
Jackson’s fleet of World War I vehicles lined the pathways up to Parliament, and you could hear the clicking boots of the 98 soldiers in full vintage World War I uniform before you saw them.
Sitting high atop a two-storey World War I Dennis vehicle was Eileen Tiller, 92, and her son John, attending as descendants of the tunnellers who served in France during World War I. Her uncle William was a tunneller in and her father served at Passchendaele.
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‘‘He never said much at all about the war because I think they saw such terrible things.’’
Tiller said the parade was absolutely fantastic. ‘‘I don’t think Wellington has ever seen a day like this – not just because of the weather but the people and the atmosphere – it’s magic.’’
Cavalry headed up the parade, closely followed by two wheel-barrow-toting gentleman charged with cleaning up the inevitable horse manure along the way.
At the top of Taranaki St, people lined the pavement shoulder-to-shoulder, five rows deep and cheered as three planes flew overhead in formation, and the parade arrived at its destination in Pukeahu memorial park.