Anzac Day 2025: Services and events in Christchurch

Anzac Day will be commemorated on Friday 25 April.

  • All our libraries will be closed on this public holiday
  • Read our page on Anzac Day and Gallipoli to find out more about the history of this commemoration

Anzac Day services

Dawn service at Cathedral Square Friday 25 April 6.30am to 8am

This year for the third time since the 2011 Earthquakes, we will be returning to Cathedral Square under the Citizen’s War Memorial. 

The commemorations that mark Australia and New Zealand’s Gallipoli campaign will begin at 6.15am when war veterans will gather at the Worcester Bridge and then parade the short distance to Cathedral Square for the traditional dawn service. 

Deputy Mayor Pauline Cotter will join representatives of New Zealand’s armed forces to lay wreaths during the service, which starts at 6.30am. The New Zealand Army Band will then perform, concluding with the playing of the Last Post, a minute’s silence, and then the singing of the New Zealand national anthem. 

For more information visit ccc.govt.nz/dawnservice.


Anzac Day service at the Air Force Museum of New Zealand Friday 25 April 12noon

Come and join us at the Air Force Museum in honouring our airmen at our annual Anzac Day service on Friday 25 April 2025 at 12pm. The service will last around 45 minutes, and tea and coffee will be provided after the service and Contact Café will be open on Anzac Day as usual.

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Other local services

Anzac Day services will also be held around Christchurch and Banks Peninsula. The usual times and locations are:


More Anzac Day events

Anzac Walk: 10am to 11.30am - starts at Avebury House

Meeting at Avebury House we will take an easy guided wander through the Richmond River red zone, including our special Anzac installation of biographies, white crosses and knitted poppies. We finish our jaunt back at Avebury House with a cup of tea and an Anzac biscuit.
Find out more

World Wars in Miniature: Marking 80yrs since the end of WWII: 11am to 3pm - St Nicholas Church Hall

On ANZAC Day, World Wars in miniature with displays and memorabilia. Four large dioramas depicting battles from WWI and WWII. New models have been added this year. Lots of original memorabilia and authentic army and airforce uniforms for you to try on. There is a hunt on for children under 13 years with prizes for the first 50 children.
Find out more.


Related exhibitions

Exhibition: Tuakiri Investigates: Diaries and Letters Home (on at Tūranga until 25 May 2025)
(Tūranga not open on Anzac Day)

Diaries and letters that normally hide in our Archives are being highlighted in this interesting exhibition focusing on war correspondence.

Come and see the personal letters, diaries, photos, records and medals of some local soldiers. Read what the war was really like for these local lads and how important it was to keep in touch with family and friends and to record events as they happened


Voices of Gallipoli

In 2023, we hosted a Voices of Gallipoli event at Tūranga. Using a concept created by playwright Arthur Meek, where local actors and current soldiers performed soldiers' accounts of the campaign from Maurice Shadbolt's Voices of Gallipoli collection. Supported by Friends of the Library Ngā Hoahoa o Ngā Kete Wānanga-o-Ōtautahi, this event featured an army bugler and the New Zealand String Quartet. This act of remembrance | maumahara was a moving occasion.