A new year brings with it the New Year’s Honours list, where New Zealanders who have made significant contributions to their communities are recognised and thanked for their work. We are incredibly honoured to have several QEII covenantors on the New Year’s honours list this year and are proud to celebrate their achievements along with the rest of the amazing individuals on the honours list.  

Gillian Adshead and Kevin Adshead 
Gillian and Kevin Adshead were both awarded The Queen’s Service Medal for their services to conservation.  
 
The Adsheads are conservation champions in their community, connecting with other landowners and farmers to support and encourage conservation practises. They are both QEII covenantors and started the Mataia Restoration Project in 2005, which focuses on pest control on their 1,300-hectare family farm.  
 
Their efforts allowed for kiwi to return to Mataia in 2013 and following this, the pair founded the Forest Bridge Trust. The Trust’s mission is to create an ecological corridor, giving kiwi a safe environment to disperse further afield. The Trust also works to support other restoration projects on private and public land including many other QEII covenants and the QEII–owned Dunn’s Bush. 
 
They also supported the development of the CatchIT Schools programme, which encourages students to undertake pest control, which has grown and now reaches schools all over the Rodney District, from Pakiri to Kaipara.  

Dick Jardine and Jillian Jardine 
Queenstown based covenantors Dick and Jillian Jardine were made Members of the New Zealand Order of Merit for their services to philanthropy and conservation.  
 
The Jardine’s are passionate covenantors, who have a QEII covenant protecting a popular sight-seeing and rock-climbing destination at the base of the Remarkables, known as the Jardines Boulders This was put aside so that the public will always be able to enjoy it, both for its natural values and as a recreational destination. 
 
They have also gifted a significant amount of land in the Otago region. These gifts include the couples original homestead (The Woolshed) on four-hectares on Remarkables Station on the shores of Lake Wakatipu, to the University of Otago, which will be used as academic research retreat, Hakitekura. This helps the University attract world-renowned speakers and researchers to New Zealand. More recently, the Jardine’s gifted 900-hectares of land, to QEII, comprising most of the Remarkables Station. This magnificent gift protects a key Queenstown landscape at the foot of the Remarkables Range for perpetuity and ensures the area will remain under New Zealand ownership. This generous gift to the nation will ensure this iconic landscape will remain unspoilt forever.  The Jardine’s have also supported local cultural activities in the Queenstown Lakes area, including significant contributions to the establishment and development of the Lakes Music School ‘Turn Up 

Dame Anne Salmond
New Zealand’s most senior honour, The Order of New Zealand, was appointed to QEII covenantor, distinguished writer and social scientist, Dame Anne Salmond. 

Since the 1970s, Dame Anne has been internationally recognised for her work on cross-cultural exchanges. She has had a lifelong engagement with te ao Māori and is currently a Distinguished Professor of Maori Studies and Anthropology at the University of Auckland. In 2013 she became the first social scientist to be awarded the Rutherford Medal and has authored many books, including a prize-winning series which that focuses on what happens when people from different cultures encounter and engage with each other.

Her contributions to environmental matters include her writings on climate change and the restoration of rivers, forests, and the ocean. She has also championed broader environmental causes, and advocates for sustainable land use across New Zealand. Dame Anne is also a key part of efforts to improve and protect rivers across New Zealand as patron of Te Awaroa, which has a case study on the Waimatā Catchment in Gisborne. 

Dame Anne and her husband Jeremy are passionate QEII covenantors. They have three covenants which cover steep hill country, a notable garden, and a riverside forest in the Gisborne area. Their active involvement across all areas of covenant management and willingness to share their results sets an outstanding example to others wishing to follow their path.  

About The Honours 
The New Zealand Royal Honours system is made up of three Orders: the Order of New Zealand; the New Zealand Order of Merit; the Queen’s Service Order and associated Queen’s Service Medal. Ordinary membership of the Order of New Zealand is restricted to 20 living persons and celebrates a person’s outstanding service to the Crown and people of New Zealand. 

Anyone can nominate a person for a New Zealand Royal Honour. There are around 800-1,000 nominations considered every year and up to 400 are granted across the Queen’s Birthday and New Year honours lists.