Two of our students recently travelled to Featherston to be part of the opening of the WW1 Memorial for the Featherston Military Camp, which trained 60,0000 men for service in World War One. Here is their story.

Our Featherston journey to celebrate the memorial sculpture for the 100 year Armistice ending WW1 and Remembrance Sunday

7th Nov - We had to get up at home at around 6 am to get ready to go to Picton. We left around 8 am with our car packed up with enough clothes for six days. As we drove to Picton we marvelled at the new roads around Kaikoura built after the earthquake. We arrived at Picton with plenty of time to buy our tickets and wait in line to get on the ferry. We got on around 4.20 pm.  The ferry ride was very quiet which made the long journey bearable. We got off at the Wellington harbour and headed to Featherston in driving rain and darkness. We followed the horse truck over the Rimataku mountains, this was very slow.

We finally arrived at the gate of the farm we were staying, the 2 km driveway felt like forever with the winds and darkness buffeting the van and truck. After putting the horses into their paddock we fell into our bed after midnight. Around 2 am our Australian riders from the 7th Light horse from Gundagai arrived with lots of happy laughter and noise.

8th Nov - We spent the Thursday getting our horses tidied up, checking out the route we needed to take for the parade, exploring the grounds of the farm we were staying at which was part of the Featherston camp in 1914. We did a full kit inspection in the afternoon, with some sewing needed on some of the uniforms.

9th Nov - Friday morning we got up at 5 am and after dressing in our uniforms, we put the horses into the truck and headed to Featherston station to meet three of the morning trains. We set up as an honour guard and supported the Featherston RSA collecting monies with poppies. We had four horses and riders facing the huge diesel trains that roared in. None of the horses moved. We had four of us marching along the station in a unit with our Sergeant singing a soldier song.

The rain was pouring down and the wind was blowing so hard some of our hats came flying off.

At lunchtime, we went to the Anzac Hall in Featherston. This is the oldest military hall in NZ.

TVNZ one came and interviewed our organisers of the Mounted Rifles representing NZ & Australia. The main significance of North Canterbury Mounted Rifles going to Featherston was to represent the history of our soldiers who followed this path when heading to war. The significance of us riding with the 7th Light Horse Gundagai regiment was for the end of the war where these two regiments went back to Gallipoli to bury the dead. Ten thousand horses went to war from NZ. Only Four returned home.

In the afternoon we went to Wellington to pick up one more Australian soldier from Wellington Airport.

10th Nov - At 1 pm we got ready and six of us rode from the old memorial on State Highway 2 which was about 2 km to Featherston town centre. We followed cadets and active NZ soldiers with a WW1 ambulance following us. We met up with the military band and carried on to the centre of Featherston where the 100-year commemoration sculpture was being revealed. Five of us stood as an honour guard with the Wellington Mounted Rifles. We stood for an hour in very hot weather and we were unable to move or smile. We all had WW1 replica 303 rifles which were really heavy.

After the ceremony, we met up at the Anzac hall for afternoon tea and an old WW1 movie documentary.

11 Nov - Sunday was another special day where we commemorated the 11 days of the 11 hours for the end of WW1. We spent this day at Masterton supporting the Masterton RSA (Returned Services Association)

Conclusion

We did this week of parades and memorials to help remind the public about WW1, the soldiers and the horses that served with them.

There were veterans that were there and many people said having young people dressed in the original uniforms with their horses reminded them how young some of those soldiers were.

Lest we forget