Three major elements of the Anzac centenary commemorations are opening in Wellington today.

Source: Breakfast

A week out from the 100th anniversary of the Gallipoli landings, the public will get their first look at Te Papa's exhibition Gallipoli: The Scale of Our War.

The collaborative project with Weta Workshop tells the haunting stories of New Zealanders at the battle front, bringing them to life.

Media and family descendants had a preview of the exhibition yesterday after it was kept secret for months and huge public interest is expected on opening weekend.

Eight New Zealanders who were at Gallipoli are depicted in the exhibition as figures two-and-a-half times the size of the average person. Visitors can hear their stories and thoughts read aloud from their diaries and letters.

"There's very much a need to find in anything you create to find the intimate in the epic. And this was an epic war of extraordinary scale for the soldiers that fought there," said Sir Richard Taylor, the exhibition's creative director.

It took 24,000 hours of work to bring the eight characters to life in exact detail.

At 11am, Pukeahu National War Memorial Park will be officially opened by Governor-General Sir Jerry Mateparae and Prime Minister John Key. There'll also be a rededication of the Hall of Memories.

Tonight at 7pm, the WW1 Remembered Sound and Light Show opens. It features imagery from our military history projected onto the facades of the historic Dominion Museum Building and the Carillon. The show will run nightly until Anzac Day.

Tomorrow night, Australian Prime Minister Tony Abbott arrives in Wellington to take part in the Anzac centenary commemorations.

On Monday, Mr Abbott and Mr Key will take part in a dedication ceremony of the Australian Memorial in the newly-opened Pukeahu National War Memorial Park.