New Zealand Ypres Day Tour from Arras

New Zealand Ypres Day Tour from Arras

Delve into New Zealand’s World War I history on this 12-hour day tour from Arras. Explore the New Zealand Memorial Park near Messines Ridge with a guide and learn of the thousands of soldiers who laid down their lives. Take in key sites of interest including Butts Cemetery, Nine Elms Cemetery, the New Zealand Memorial, and Polygon Wood. Perhaps pay your respects at the Tyne Cot Cemetery in Passchendaele, then attend the daily Last Post ceremony at the Menin Gate. This tour includes round-trip travel from Arras.

Meet your guide at 9:30am at the railway station in Arras, then head through the war-scarred landscape of Vimy Ridge to Fleurbaix and Ploegsteert. Along the way, pass perfectly preserved German machine and command bunkers dating back to WWI and listen as your guide describes the fighting that took place from 1914 to 1918.

Visit the New Zealand Memorial Park near Messines Ridge, and discover the German bunkers overlooking the battlefield. Then, stop at the Messines Ridge Cemetery — where the names of missing soldiers of the 3rd Rifle Brigade are listed on the memorial. At the Nine Elms Cemetery in Poperinge, see the grave of Sgt Dave Gallaher — former captain of the All Blacks rugby team and one of 13 All Blacks team members who died in WWI.

After lunch, explore Butts Cemetery, the New Zealand Memorial, and Polygon Wood, then visit Passchendaele Museum — home to reconstructed trenches and dugouts. Visit Tyne Cot Cemetery in Passchendaele, the largest Commonwealth War Graves Commission cemetery in Europe.

Continue on to Ypres and enjoy free time to explore at your leisure, then head on to your centrally located Ypres hotel to conclude your tour. Alternatively, attend the daily Last Post ceremony at the Menin Gate at 8pm. Afterward, depart Ypres for your hotel or the railway station in Arras, or Lille.