24 Apr 2015

Gallipoli 2015: the way to Chunuk Bair

11:09 am on 24 April 2015

Chunuk Bair in Gallipoli has miserable statistics. Of the 760 men who reached the summit, only 70 came back unscathed. The rest were hurt or killed.

Today, it is the site of the New Zealand Memorial.  

The path to get there is known as the New Zealand Track, created by the New Zealand government more than a decade ago.

READ: Like a splinter in the heart: Young New Zealanders commemorate Anzac Day

Ministry of Culture and Heritage war historian Ian McGibbon says the area can help people understand what troops endured, although he said it is something that can never be replicated.

"By coming to a place like this you're away from the road, you're in amongst the battlefield, you get a much better feel for what it was like.

"I really believe that you cannot really understand this place until you come here, to not only see the terrain but also feel it."

"This is a very symbolic and important New Zealand place," he says.