As the nation prepares to mark the centenary of the Anzac landings at Gallipoli, a solemn service last night marked the sacrifice paid by Kiwis beneath another World War I battlefield.
A delegation from the French town of Arras yesterday visited Waihi for the blessing of a foundation stone for a memorial to honour a company that endured some of the most hellish conditions of the war.
More than 446 Kiwis served in the New Zealand Tunnelling Company - many of them labourers trading jobs in their local mines and railways for service on the Western Front - and 41 never came home.
The company had the tragic distinction of yielding the New Zealand Expeditionary Force's first death on the Western Front, while also being the first Kiwi company to arrive in France and the last to leave.
Arras Mayor Frederic Leturque and Sue Baker Wilson hold a pick which was used by New Zealand tunnellers during World War I.
Beneath Arras, the men spent long, dark days digging a vast underground military system housing kitchens, hospitals, headquarters and enough room for nearly 20,000 men.
The company also played a combat role in laying mines beneath nearby enemy lines, and "counter-mining" when their German counterparts tried to do the same.
"They stayed there on the frontline for two years, and while they were they were shot at, shelled, gassed and caught when caves fell in," Waihi Heritage Vision chairman Kit Wilson said. "People seem to think of them as non-combatants, but it really was front-line service."
Mr Wilson said Waihi's 7.5m memorial, to be completed next year, symbolised the "calling home" of the spirits of the tunnellers who died.
About 90 of the tunnellers came from Waihi, and the memorial's foundation stone had been brought from the Hauraki town's historic Martha mine, where many of them had worked before the war.
Another stone was laid by a delegation representing the handful of Cook Islanders who served alongside the tunnellers.
The French delegation included Arras Mayor Frederic Leturque, who brought with him a pick that had been used by the tunnellers, and Isabelle Pilarowski, director of the Wellington Carriere, a museum in Arras.
Mr Wilson said another monument, The Earth Remembers, would be finished for the centenary of the Battle of Arras in April 2017. NZME.
I went to Waihi on Wednesday...a beautiful park which I had never investigated and the Tunnellers had put together an interesting ceremony, rocks etc. The Cook Island delegation was dressed and the Mayor of Arras wore his ribbon etc. seated in the front row. The Metalworkers Ass. had a model, very beautiful, of what they, too, will later have on site.
As you may imagine, the Arras group was closely surrounded by officials, the mayor of Waihi and numerous Maoris all wanting their presence to be felt.
No chance to have a friendly word.
Previous announcement....
On 22 April a Mayoral delegation from Arras in France will visit Waihi to participate in the blessing of the foundation stone for the World War One New Zealand Tunnelling Company Memorial which will be dedicated early next year. They will bring with them a flint rock from Arras which will join a stone from the Cook Islands and a large boulder from the Martha mine in Waihi to stand on the pathway to the Tunnellers' Memorial.
In addition to the Cook Island rock to be used in conjunction with the Waihi host rock, three other stones individually named for the Cook Island men known to have worked in the Arras tunnels will be received. A Thames rock to acknowledge tunnellers from this community will join these. All four rocks will be used in the construction of the memorial wall. A WW1 pick provided by the Arras delegation will also be used. It is hoped that other families and communities will add to the memorial wall with their own named rocks.
Last week the host Martha rock for the Cook Island stone and the French flintstone was placed at the reserve in readiness for the dedication.
The foundation stone will be blessed and dedicated at 4.00pm on Wednesday 22 April at Gilmour Reserve behind the lake in the Miners' Reflective Area. Members of the public are warmly invited to attend. This will be followed at 5.00pm by the dedication of the Waihi Lions Club Poppy Fence at the Cornish Pumphouse that commemorates all of the enlistments from the Waihi area.
