It was a very special Anzac Day for some Acacia Bay residents last year.

The annual commemoration for New Zealanders killed in war and the honouring of returned and serving servicemen and women was not celebrated in the usual manner because of coronavirus alert level 4 lockdown.

However, Acacia Bay residents were inspired to decorate their homes and gardens for the commemoration.

Acacia Bay Residents' Association secretary Kym Mahood said Scenic Heights residents were the first to put up Anzac decorations that could be seen from the street. Many others followed suit, decorating houses, letterboxes and fences.

Kym said other streets began to do the same, and before long many streets in Acacia Bay had houses displaying Anzac remembrance decorations or wreaths.

"We were in lockdown, and people made their displays from garden plants or recycled items."

"There were many very personal tributes to family members who fought in the wars."

A dawn service was planned, with neighbours contacting each other through social media, the telephone and by calling out to each other across the street. Those who wanted to join in could stand by their front gate and take part in the service.

It is a military tradition for a bugle to play the Last Post at military funerals and on Anzac Day, to indicate a soldier has gone to their final rest.

"With the required spacing, people stood silently in their family groups to pay their respects," Kym said.

For the 2020 Anzac Day dawn service, Residents' Association member Glenda van de Ven-Long and her family went out to their letterbox at 6am.

"There were quite a few of our neighbours also at their letterboxes. When the Last Post began to play I was crying, it was so meaningful," Glenda said.

Proud to wear her father's and grandfathers' war medals, Glenda said her father was stationed in the Solomon Islands during World War II as ground crew for the Air Force. Her father's father was part of the Calvary stationed in Egypt during World War 1 while her mother's father was a stretcher-bearer in no man's land in Belgium, also in World War I.

Decorating her letterbox with poppies knitted by her mother was particularly poignant for Glenda because knitters were such great contributors in both world wars.

"It was my way of acknowledging Mum and also honouring the women who sent over knitted socks, balaclavas and so on to the soldiers."

Glenda said for Anzac Day 2021, the Residents' Association is hoping people will continue making and displaying decorations in their gardens as a way to honour the Anzacs. 

She said for 2022 the committee is looking at putting on a community breakfast in the Acacia Bay Hall, following the Anzac Day ceremonies held in town.

Credit: Nzherald.co.nz