A cacophony of sound across the country on the weekend will break the two-minute silence of remembrance marking the centenary of the Armistice that brought an end to World War I.
St Matthew's-in-the-City will have eight ringers for bells to sound in participation for the Roaring Chorus. Photo: Supplied / Adrian Grant
Called the Roaring Chorus, te Korihi Whakaharuru is designed to replicate what happened on 11 November 1918, when news came through that four years of a brutal war had come to an end.
It was met with widespread thanksgiving, celebration and a lot of noise.
On Sunday at 11.02am, people around the country people are being encouraged to make a din in anyway they see fit.
Bells have always played a major part in signalling danger or in this case a celebration as it was 100 years ago.
This is how the Evening Post in Wellington described it on 12 November 1918.
"There were songs and cheers, miscellaneous pipings and blastings and tootings and rattlings - a roaring chorus of gladsome sounds."
Interviews from Ngā Taonga Sound & Vision of people reminiscing about the day spoke of the surprise around all the noise being generated.
"I got into town just before nine and the bells started ringing and I said whatever is going on it's peace they said, peace," one person said.
"I woke next morning to a tremendous noise of sirens and bell ringing and voices and feet running," another said.
"I went down to Queens Street where I saw excitment, people had Benzene tins, banging anything that they could bang to make drums and I got a Benzene tin from somewhere and banged it."
The reference to a roaring chorus inspired the World War I centenary programme office to put the call out to try and recapture the energy of 11 November 1918.
WW100 Centenary Office director Sarah Davies said since many people would not be able to attend the national service in Wellington, they looked at other ways to engage the public in the final commemoration of the war centenary.
She said they did research on how New Zealand marked the arrival of peace.
"We became clear that there was a kind of mixed emotion but there were people who went into the streets and basically made noise, they made loud noise, they made glorious sound."
Ms Davies said this inspired her office to put a call out to New Zealand to join them in breaking the silence.
She said it marks a change of tone to the commemorations.
"We have spent 4 years remembering the loss and the hardship, the compassion and the sympathy that New Zealand had at the time and now we move into a time when we are able to look back but to also look forward."
Many events are planned around the country to kick off once the two-minute silence is over.
These include fire appliances sounding their sirens for 11 seconds.
Bells will again be rung out across the nation.
At St Martin's-at-St Chad's Church in Sandringham the old bell rope has been repaired in time for the commemoration.
Vicar Jacynthia Murphy says churches are teaming up to ring bells after the two-minute silence of remembrance, marking the centenary of the Armistice. Photo: Supplied
The Vicar, Jacynthia Murphy said other churches, particularly in Auckland, were teaming up.
"We won't be able to hear each others bells but we have vowed to synchronise our watches so that each of us will be ringing our bell at 11.02."
Adrian Grant is tower captain at St Matthew's-in-the-City in Auckland where muffled bells will be rung before a commemorative service but at 11.02 it will be a different story.
"It's basically just using the bells to add as much sound we can to the general outpouring of sound," Mr Grant said.
"We will have eight ringers for that so all the bells will be sounding from the smallest to the largest, which weighs a tonne and makes a reasonable sound."
The church's bells will also be ringing at 12.30pm on Sunday.
An international campaign called Ringing Remembers Campaign was launched last year to recruit 1400 new ringers to symbolically replace that number of ringers killed during World War I .
Mr Grant said the campaign was successful in recruiting 2000 new ringers so far.
A celebratory fanfare will be played by the full bells at the National War Memorial Carillon in Wellington to set the tone for the roaring chorus across the country.
On Sunday, Pukeahu National War Memorial Park in Wellington will be filled with messages of hope, peace and remembrance displayed on a 5m-high digital installation.
New Zealanders everywhere are being invited to contribute a message to the Armistice Beacon.