Under a shady tree, looking out at a sea of white tombstones, seven elderly Australian war veterans remember their mates, the good times and the hard, the rain and the mud.
They were at Bomana war cemetery in Port Moresby on Monday, at the end of a week-long tour of Papua New Guinea, to mark the 70th anniversary of victory in the Pacific and the Japanese surrender in World War II.
It's the largest war cemetery in the Pacific with close to 4000 graves, mostly Australian.
Colourful tropical flowers are planted between each grave and butterflies dance overhead.
Gordon Graham, Jack Jeston, Ronald 'Dixie' Lee, Norm Quayle, David Andary, Len Seto (and Leigh 'Laddie' Hindley may be hard of hearing, frail, grey-haired and wrinkled but their youth-like cheeky grins and enthusiasm for spinning yarns have not been lost.
At 88, Mr Graham is the baby of the group having enlisted when just 15.
He served aboard HMAS Westralia in a series of operations including the Battle of Arawe in New Britain.
"I was the youngest of the lot, 4ft8 - I was a big boy," he said laughing.
"There's not many of us left but we're like a team, a family."
Mr Graham remembers clearly the day the Japanese surrendered.
He went down to the stokers' mess to see some of his mates. One of them handed him a mug from which he took a big gulp.
"Out of my ears and out of my nose - it was pure metho brrrgghhhh," he said, laughing.
A mate told him he was a "silly bugger" because "you were supposed to put water with that".
It was "bloody shame" to see the resting place of so many of the young men who didn't make it home, Mr Graham said.
"They've been well thought of, they'll never be dead."
For Mr Jeston, 91, the trip has reinforced how lucky he was to come out of the war alive.
He recalls a near miss collecting six hidden grenades he'd been asked to put out the night before.
Veterans Affairs Minister Michael Ronaldson said it had been a privilege to get to know the men and hear their stories showcasing the larrikin Australian spirit.
They were infused with a "fierce, steely determination to get the job done", he said.
"A nation that fails to remember is a nation that fails itself," he added.
