Rimutaka Crossing Memorial

 Featherston Military Camp, Wairarapa, was New Zealand's largest training camp that helped prepare 60,000 men for service in WW1. Infantry usually trained between six – eight weeks there while mounted riflemen and artillerymen did virtually all of their training at the camp. During this time groups of 2000 soldiers would march over the Rimutaka Hill to ships bound for WW1 and of the 60,000 soldiers, 17,000 servicemen and women were killed overseas.
 
The Rimutaka Crossing Memorial Re-enactment remembered all those men and women who trained in Featherston, left for the front and never returned. As part of the WW1 commemoration descendants gathered at 3am in Featherston under clear night skies and no wind, with police, military police and New Zealand Transport Agency personnel keeping a tight eye on the procession as it headed up SH2. Four hours later and marching 10.8km, the 250 marches reached the Rimutaka Summit hidden in fog. They had breakfast and unveiled the newly created Remembrance Memorial. Following this they marched the 8.9km down the Wellington side of the hill to finish at Kaitoke.
The march took place on Sunday, 27 September 2015.
 
Memorial Remembrance Monument:
The memorial was designed by the re-enactment group and brought to life by artist Niko Thompson, stonemason Mike Dunn and engineer Michael Hewison.  It stands 3m high in stone and ironwork. The metal figures represent those who marched and include not only soldiers but an ambulance, horses and Patriotic Society women serving tea. The figures and words 'Rimutaka Crossing 1915-1919' are made from steel. The monument is dedicated to the soldiers who endured the crossing -- and the war.
 
Today as our family drove over the Rimutakas, as its known, the weather was horrendous. Sheets of rain and wind lashing at the window making hard work for the wipers. We could hardly see in front of us as we climbed the narrow, winding road, it is well known to motorists as a wild place. At the top of the summit the silhouettes of the memorial stood out against the thick grey sky as native bush softened the harshness of the day.
 
It was today our family sadly gathered at ICU Wellington Hospital to be by the side of my mother-in-law.