The Anzac spirit is alive and well after Australia rescued New Zealand from a poppy shortfall crisis.
The Royal New Zealand Returned and Services' Association found it didn't have enough poppies to meet the higher demand ahead of this year's centenary commemorations and its new manufacturer couldn't deliver at the expected rate.
So the Victorian branch of the Returned and Services League of Australia offered to air freight more than 200,000 poppies to help New Zealand meet the demand.
"It's the real example of the Anzac spirit alive and well in 2015, quite frankly," chief executive David Moger told AAP.
"We knew we had a problem and we never wanted to be in this situation, but to have them step up and stand alongside us just as the Anzacs stood side by side over the years in all sorts of conflict situations, and for them to show the comradeship, and compassion values to us and to be prepared to help out like that, I think it's very special."
The poppies were manufactured in China for three years, but this year they were manufactured in Christchurch.
Mr Moger said he didn't have any regrets about moving the poppy manufacturing to the quake-hit city as having a mixture of the two types of poppies in the centenary year gave a good message about the connection between Australia and New Zealand.
The Australian poppies are more flowery and have a metal stem - a contrast to the simple Kiwi pins with a plastic stem.
Normally about 800,000 poppies are ordered, but this year the number is close to one million - and he's hoping donations will hit $NZ2 million ($A1.97 million) after being at $NZ1.7 million last year.
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