On Armistice Day (11 November) 2004 the body of an unidentified New Zealand soldier was laid to rest in a tomb in front of the National War Memorial in Wellington. He had been one of some 9,000 New Zealand soldiers who were buried in unknown graves overseas. His body had been excavated from Caterpillar Valley Cemetery on the Somme (in northern France) and brought to Wellington. After an all-night vigil at Parliament, shown here, the Unknown Warrior was given a full military procession through the streets of Wellington before an estimated crowd of 100,000. The body was then interred in a tomb designed by New Zealand artist Kingsley Baird, which featured greenstone crosses representing the Southern Cross.
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