AB tour diary Day 7: in France & Belgium. 11 November 2014

11 November 2014

This was a day which will be very hard to forget.

How privileged we Kiwi rugby tourists felt to be here in northern France and southern Belgium on the day when the start of World War One was remembered in such a poignant way for New Zealanders. We could directly say without too much stretching of the imagination that but for the actions of an early age of New Zealand young soldiers there might not have been the New Zealand lifestyle we enjoy so well today.

Of course there were hundreds of thousands of other soldiers from many other allied countries in the theatres of that war but today we Kiwis thought of those from our country who had given so much.

Our two travelling groups set out from Lille at an early hour to drive to Belgium; ahead of us was a busy morning and early afternoon before driving on to Paris.

Our first stop was to see the famous (or is it infamous) Tyne Cot cemetry near Ypres, where 35,000 British, Commonwealth and New Zealand solidiers lie in neat, perfectly groomed graves. It was eerily tragic to be standing there in the sunlight on such a perfect day with no real way of reaching our minds back to the horrors of those 1917 battles.  (Incidentally any history of the battle at 'Ypres' will tell you of the tremendous difficulty the New Zealand soldiers had of pronouncing that town's name. Eventually it was nicknamed 'Wipers' by the Kiwis. All these years later I heard some horrendous efforts of pronunciation today. Me? I call the town 'Eep-riz' with a French accent - though I'm still not sure!

Our progress then took us beyond that place of great dignity to a small ceremony at the town of Messines. This was where a charge of New Zealand soldiers came up a slope to the village on the top of a hill where the town lay with German soldiers fiercely defending it.

800 Kiwis fell in the Battle of Messines Ridge. Now there is a park there honouring our fallen with a tall impressive memorial to the dead soldiers from so far away.

As our group gathered there in the sun the sound of marching music heralded the arrival of a band, a small party of officials and a couple of flag-bearers. A small ceremony followed which we felt truly honoured to be at; The New Zealand National was played for the crowd of about 100, Binyon's ode was read with great solemnity. Then a beautiful crisp, country, silence followed. Perhaps the only sound I heard was of some New Zealand throats swallowing hard. It was that emotional!

The surprise proceedings were all over in a matter of minutes. Then handshakes and embraces followed with Kiwis and Brits hailing each other and the Belgians chipping in with their 'bon jours' etc. The whole thing was a perfect reflection of the good that the battles had been fought so hard for?

Representing the New Zealand Embassy from Brussels I met David Dewar from Lower Hutt. He is the Second Secretary at the Embassy and like so many New Zealand situations around the world not only was there immediate connection for David with Anne and I (his father Gerard is our lawyer back home) but David soon found other friends of his in our group. In the Kiwi way he was soon hailing people he would have never expected to see in such a far-flung place and dramatic circumstance. Lots of greetings and laughter.

By the end of the night when I had emailed some photographs to David's Dad I had received a reply of others from Gerard in Lower Hutt which he already had!! (It crossed my mind about the men in the dirty, muddy trenches of so long ago scribbling with trembling hands their letters home to wives and family - some of whom they would never see again. And there we were posting high definition shots which were zoomed around the world and back in seconds. How the world has progressed....!)

There was still more to come on this memorable day. David Dewar had suggested a trip to statue of a New Zealand soldier in the nearby Messines town square was a 'must.' And so it proved to be. There he was , standing in the 'at ease' position for all of us to pose with.

David pointed out that the unnamed soldier had a website of his own so a couple of us pledged to send our pictures of him to the site. I also posed kneeling down on the embedded map of New Zealand in the Messines village footpath. The only town that is highlighted is Featherston, in the North Island. The two towns are 'twinned' to each other. Its impressive.

Sitting there in the sun I turned to our rugby mastermind, Gordon Scott of the South Island's Waimate (he who staggers me with his knowledge of New Zealand rugby history), and I said, 'OK Gordon, who were the two New Zealand All Blacks from Featherston?

Before I could stop rubbing my hands together in gleeful anticipation at the gloating I would give his incorrect answer, Gordon snapped back with 'Um, Jimmy and Quentin Donald?'

You could have knocked me over with a feather!! The man is amazing! He was correct of course.

Alas, we could have stayed longer but we had to move along. As the sun filled a glorious afternoon we boarded our (coaches) busses and after a brief stop at the Messines Ridge cemetry we were on our road to Paris.

This is how the world works these days. One minute our heads are bowed but the next they are uplifted to the sun. On the coach we listened to our guide's excellent commentary as we drive back through northern France with gay Paree in our sights.

We are to be in the Hotel Mercure Montmartre for three nights. We will cross back to Scotland on Friday for the All Blacks next tour match.

That will return our minds to rugby again. Meantime today was a glorious reminder of what our forefathers had bravely fought for. It was of the All Black's long history too. 13 of them died in World War I, some of them in the very places we saw or stood today.

RIP the dead ALL BLACKS from World War One;

James Baird - died France June 7 1917, France

Robert 'Bobby' Black - died France (Battle of The Somme) 21 September 1917

Henry Dewar - died Gallipoli August 9 1915

Ernest Dodd - died France 11 September 1918

Albert 'Doolan' Downing - died Gallipoli, 8 August 1915

Dave Gallaher - died Passchendale, Belgium 4 October 1917 (Buried Poperinge, not far from Messines)

Eric Harper - died Palestine 30 April 1918

James 'Jim' McNeece - died Belgium, June 21 1917 in Battle of Messines Ridge.

Alex 'Jimmy' Ridland - died France, 5 November 1918 (six days before the end of WWI)

George Sellars - died Messines, Belgium, 7 June 1917 (carrying a wounded colleague away from battle)

Reginald Taylor - died Messines, Belgium 20 June 1917

Hubert 'Jum' Turtill - died in France 9 April 1918 - (Was one of the first All Blacks to go to rugby league ('northern Union'). He joined the war with the British Armed Forces)

Frank Wilson - died France 19 September 1916 (Battle of the Somme)