New Zealand Prime Minister John Key says he's filled with enormous pride and great sadness after walking around memorial sites at Gallipoli.
Security was tight as Mr Key arrived on the Gallipoli peninsula on Friday morning on his way to see the major commemorative sites.
Armed police monitored road blocks along the stony streets of small town Eceabat in preparation for Mr Key's motorcade.
Mr Key and his wife Bronagh took in the scenic memorials at Lone Pine, The Nek, Quinn's Post and Chunuk Bair.
Top Kiwi historian Christopher Pugsley led the couple around the sites, giving them a history lesson.
"It's very peaceful," Mr Key said to his wife as he snapped a picture of the Lone Pine memorial on his iPhone.
At The Nek, Dr Pugsley said they were standing on a "Swiss cheese" full of tunnels.
"Braver and thinner men than I have crawled in," he said.
Mr Key and Bronagh spent the most time at Chunuk Bair, where the hill was once "carpeted with bodies", Dr Pugsley said.
They laid poppies at the graves of two 17-year-olds who had lied about their age to go to war.
"It's (Chunuk Bair) is a place which is quite special for New Zealanders, a place where we always have a lot of tears," Mr Key told reporters.
The area is practically empty as organisers lock down the reserve ahead of the Anzac centenary commemorations.
The prime minister will attend the French service, the Turkish International service and the Commonwealth and Irish service on Friday afternoon, Turkish time, before heading to the Anzac Commemorative Site at North Beach with Australian Prime Minister Tony Abbott to meet the first of the pilgrims.
Mr Key has been in Istanbul since Wednesday night where he's spoken at a peace conference and held bilateral talks with his Turkish counterpart Ahmet Davutoglu.
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