A day to honour the brave.

At the dawn’s early light, some of New Zealand's and Australia's greatest men raise themselves up from their slumber. They dress in their best. They dust off old medals and place them firmly on display with pride before heading off to local dawn services scattered across the nation.

They come to remember their mates. They come to remember those who went before them, for those who fought after them, for those still to fight. A timeless fraternity of the brave.

In the capricious lights of dawn their numbers are a little more depleted from previous years, their hair a little greyer, their body a little less mobile walking in, but it doesn’t matter; they wouldn’t miss it for the world.

In the vast crowds that converge around them they are supported by the generations they fought so hard to save–their children, their grandchildren, their great grandchildren. It’s an assorted mixture of who’s who. Different ethnicities, different races, different religions, different nations–the manifestation of a free and prosperous society. The society they fought so valiantly to protect.

After the service they catch up with their old mates to share battle stories of yesteryear. The camaraderie is still alive; it can never be lost; but neither is the pain. How can the pain ever go away? Eventually they will comment –as they do every year– that their numbers are lower.

Time stands still for no one; not even the noble and brave. It is believed that there may only be a few thousand World War Two veterans still alive in New Zealand. It makes it all the more important that the tradition of ANZAC day is kept alive in New Zealand and Australia. A special day to remember the timeless bond between our two countries. We may have our differences on the sports field but in times of great peril the two nations know where our true loyalties lie.

On ANZAC day the veterans are remembered but sadly the same cannot always be said for the rest of the year. In today’s society of fast food, reality television, social media and political correctness we can sometimes forget how miniscule our troubles really are. We can so often forget the young men who were shipped off in the absolute prime of their lives to fight in hell itself.  It can be lost that thousands upon thousands of men gave the ultimate sacrifice so we can live in relative harmony. Our worries, our concerns, the things that outrage us; they are nothing in the scheme of things.

It was once said of Oscar Schindler that ‘Whoever saves one life, saves the world’.  No words are truer of the veterans that we honour on this special day. Lest we forget.