Trevor Sutton, 83, at the Anzac Day service in New Plymouth. Sutton served in the Army as a combat medical technician.

A large turnout of young people at Taranaki's Anzac Day services has reassured organisers those who paid the ultimate price for peace will not be forgotten.

Hundreds of people arrived in darkness from every direction to line the streets around war memorials in Taranaki for the dawn services on Monday.

The two largest crowds were at Hawera and New Plymouth for the daybreak parades, with the city's streets around the cenotaph again becoming crowded for the commemorative service at 10am.

CHARLOTTE CURD/stuff.co.nz

The later service in New Plymouth had the added bonus of a fly over by Brett Emeny's WWII era 1944 Catalina flying boat flanked by two Yak 52 training aircraft.

READ MORE:

* Our Veterans: June Yearbury saw the aftermath of the atom bomb close up

* Our Veterans: Dangerous missions of war made Bill Edhouse a realist

* Our Veterans: Len Cook was still a teenager when he was torpedoed

* Great War exhibition tells Malone's story

* Gallipoli story told in massive scale at Te Papa

At Hawera's cenotaph two-year-old Arley Linn was one of the youngest to attend the chilly dawn service. He wore his great great grandfather Jack Linn's medals proudly.

CHARLOTTE CURD/Fairfax NZ Former soldier John McLeod, right, said he laid a poppy on Anzac day wherever he was in the world.

Arley's mother Trista Linn, who served in the Army, said it was great to see the large groups of young people at the service.

"It means quite a lot to me," Linn, who is a member of the RSA and is working to encourage youth to take part in the services, said.

"It's about carrying it on through the generations and making them aware of the sacrifice made.

CHARLOTTE CURD/Fairfax NZ Veterans stand at ease at the 10am Anzac Day service at the New Plymouth cenotaph.

"Part of what we are trying to do is encourage the younger generation to come along and be part of them and carry on remembering through them."

Brothers Mike Tutauha, who served in Vietnam, and Harvey Tutauha, who served in the navy, said the day held a special significance to them as it would have been their brother Bruce's birthday.

Bruce had served in Saigon.

CHARLOTTE CURD/Fairfax NZ A Catalina flying boat and Yak 52 trainers flew over the Anzac Day service at New Plymouth.

​"We're here to honour those who have passed before us," Harvey said.

"It's really wonderful to see all of the young people and to see some of them wearing their relative's medals, it's great."

"It's just to remember fallen comrades," Mike said.

CHARLOTTE CURD/Fairfax NZ Army Services lay their wreath at the Anzac Day dawn parade in Hawera.

John Salt, who served in Korea and Malaya, was supported by his son Matthew.

"It's a day to remember old comrades who didn't come back," John said.

Matthew, who had brought his own son and daughter along to the service, said he was pleased to see a younger generation in attendance.

CHARLOTTE CURD/Fairfax NZ Elderly veterans and the Anzac Day dawn service in Hawera.

"It's really good, I remember coming to these as a kid, in the 80s, and there wasn't that many young people who attended," Matthew, who had served in the Navy, said.

NZDF Sergeant Natasha Cameron said the turnout showed the plight and sacrifice made by those who had lost their lives in conflicts was not in vain.

"They made the ultimate sacrifice for the cause of justice and peace," Cameron said.

CHARLOTTE CURD/Fairfax NZ World War ll veteran, Frank Reeve, at the Anzac Day dawn service in Hawera.

Constable Michael Walden, who laid a wreath on behalf of the police, said the day was a sentimental occasion.

"It's good seeing the younger generation, especially the kids, coming out wearing the medals," Walden, who served six years in the Navy, said.

At New Plymouth's commemorative service Reverend Albie Martin said Anzac Day was a time to remember those who paid the supreme sacrifice.

CHARLOTTE CURD/Fairfax NZ Jacob McCrea, 10, Christian McCrea, 8 and Daniel McCrea, 9, brought their blankets to keep warm at the Anzac Day dawn service in Hawera.

"They did not return home and we honour them all, for their courage and bravery," Martin said.

"They served us well, we will not forget them."

John McLeod, a former soldier, said Anzac Day was an emotional time for him.

CHARLOTTE CURD/Fairfax NZ World War II veteran Robert Shearer, 95, at the Anzac Day dawn service in Hawera.

"It reminds me of all those people who have gone before me in the defence force."

In particular McLeod said he liked to take time to remember his grandfather, Donald Fletcher, who was awarded the Distinguished Conduct Medal for his service in World War I.

"I always lay a poppy every Anzac Day, it doesn't matter where in the world I am, for my grandfather."

CHARLOTTE CURD/Fairfax NZ Two-year-old Arlen Linn, with his mother Trista, wears his great great grandfather, Jack Linn's medals at the Hawera Anzac Day dawn service.

McLeod said his grandfather was a quiet man who didn't talk about the war much but he vividly remembered sitting on the porch with him as a boy as he enjoyed his tea and biscuits, smoking his pipe while watching the sun rise.

Cervantee Wild, who won a national speech contest while at Sacred Heart Girls' College and got to visit the Gallipoli peninsula, described Anzac Cove as a small stretch of beach no bigger than Ngamotu Beach.

"The small size of the beach does not match the magnitude of the loss and heartache," Wild said.

She told the crowd that people gathered at cenotaph's around the country to acknowledge and pay their respects to those who lived to serve.

"We remember those whose names are not inscribed anywhere, their legacy not seen on the graves, row on row."