Today is ANZAC Day, which is similar to Memorial Day in the US, but they celebrate much more formally here. ANZAC stands for Australia and New Zealand Army Corps. The ANZAC celebration was created to remember the Australian and New Zealand soldiers that have died at war, specifically in the Battle of Gallipoli in Turkey in WWI. I attended the Dawn Parade at 5:30 am, which is approximately the time 95 years ago that the first shots were fired at Gallipoli. ANZAC Day is the most widely celebrated national holiday in NZ. The ceremony was pretty short, only around 45 minutes, and started with the firing of a cannon, follwed by a few speeches in remembrance, some hymns and prayers, and a gun salute and final post played on a bugel, and then ended with the singing of the NZ national anthem, followed for the first time in history by the Australian national anthem. So many people attended the Dawn Parade, and there were several other ceremonies held in other places around town, such as at the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier. Churches are holding public masses in remembrance as well and town has been completely shut down since 12am this morning. I was surprised at how many people showed up that early in the morning, and I'm glad I went to see it.
I also went to the Te Papa museum to see the Pompeii Exhibit. They had body casts of people that had died after Mt. Vesuvius erupted in 79 A.D. There were also a lot of artifacts that they had found buried in the ash centuries later. It was a really interesting exhibit and they even had a 3D movie of what it would have looked like over the two days that the volcano erupted. Although the exhibit was really cool, possibly the best part of my day was walking to the exhibit when we spotted a celebrity. We didn't just spot him, we had to squeeze past him on a bridge on the waterfront right by the museum.
We were walking in a group to the museum when we got to the bridge and all filed past Jemaine from Flight of the Conchords! I'm sure a lot of people have no idea what I'm talking about, but it's a comedy show about a NZ band that goes to New York and tries to make it big. I think it's on HBO or something. Anyways, both Brett and Jemaine live in Wellington (they went to Victoria University) and every once in a while people will see them around town like we did. Jemaine quit the show (but not the band) because he was tired of being recognized by fans everywhere he went, so we didn't bother him even though he knew we recognized him. Still, it was amazing! I'm hoping to see Brett one of these days. Since he's the more social of the two, I think I would even be able to talk to him. Some of the Americans met him later that day! I was so jealous but don't feel that my encounter was in any way belittled by theirs. I just hope that soon I'll get to meet Brett! It made my week!
Other than that, it was a pretty typical week. Next weekend our housing is holding a masquerade ball so I'll write about that later. Bye!
The War Memorial
Inside the Memorial
red poppies are the symbol of the NZ soldiers that died at Gallipolli
