Northern Advocate
  • Northern Advocate home
  • Latest news
  • Business
  • Opinion
  • Lifestyle
  • Sport
  • Property
  • Video
  • Death notices
  • Classifieds

Subscriptions

  • Herald Premium
  • Viva Premium
  • The Listener
  • BusinessDesk

Sections

  • Latest news
  • On The Up
  • Business
  • Opinion
  • Lifestyle
  • Rural
    • All Rural
    • Dairy farming
    • Sheep & beef farming
    • Horticulture
    • Animal health
    • Rural business
    • Rural life
    • Rural technology
  • Sport
  • Property
    • All Property
    • Residential property listings

Locations

  • Far North
  • Kaitaia
  • Kaikohe
  • Bay of Islands
  • Whangārei
  • Kaipara
  • Mangawhai
  • Dargaville

Media

  • Video
  • Photo galleries
  • Today's Paper - E-Editions
  • Photo sales
  • Classifieds

Weather

  • Kaitaia
  • Whangārei
  • Dargaville

NZME Network

  • Advertise with NZME
  • OneRoof
  • Driven Car Guide
  • BusinessDesk
  • Newstalk ZB
  • Sunlive
  • ZM
  • The Hits
  • Coast
  • Radio Hauraki
  • The Alternative Commentary Collective
  • Gold
  • Flava
  • iHeart Radio
  • Hokonui
  • Radio Wanaka
  • iHeartCountry New Zealand
  • Restaurant Hub
  • NZME Events

SubscribeSign In
Advertisement
Advertise with NZME.
Home / Northern Advocate

Queen's Birthday Honours: John Bain

Northern Advocate
31 May, 2015 09:00 PM3 mins to read

Subscribe to listen

Access to Herald Premium articles require a Premium subscription. Subscribe now to listen.
Already a subscriber?  Sign in here

Listening to articles is free for open-access content—explore other articles or learn more about text-to-speech.
‌
Save

    Share this article

The man behind Northland's world leading service and a major player in other community roles.

The man behind Northland's world leading service and a major player in other community roles.

Queen's Birthday Honours List

John Bain expects a bit of ribbing from his friends about the gong he has received.

"A bit of borax goes with the territory I suppose, and I will give as good as I get in good fun, so they better look out," Mr Bain said.

Joking aside, the man who got Northland's emergency helicopter service up and running, and has been involved with many community initiatives and sports developments, and has been a local government representative for many years, said being made a Member of the New Zealand Order of Merit came out of the blue.

"It's an honour I didn't expect and I am humbled with the recognition as I have always had great people around me as part of a team to work with, right back to when it all started in the 1960s as a teenager raising enthusiasm and enough dollars to take a group to the National Surf Life Saving champs in Christchurch," he said.

Advertisement
Advertise with NZME.
Advertisement
Advertise with NZME.

"My wife, Jean, and family deserve part of this honour as they have supported, and sometimes gone without, to help with the projects I have been involved with."

His greatest satisfaction is from the success of the Northland Emergency Services Trust (NEST) rescue helicopters.

"There were times when, in the early days, I lay awake at night wondering how the pilots were going to be paid in a few days. Somehow we always just made it.

Advertisement
Advertise with NZME.

"Financially, we flew on the seats of our trousers for a long time, but now have a world-leading service. NEST board members over the 25 years gave me fantastic backing and now seeing the three helicopters flying all over our beautiful province, owned and operated by everyone, gives a great buzz too."

Mr Bain said people of all ages being able to participate in sport is important to him.

"So making sure children had good equipment, uniforms, and rooms to do their thing, and to have as good as the large cities had was a reason to be involved."

Involvement with junior sports led to roles at other levels.

Discover more

Wellsford woman honoured for Te Hana centre efforts

31 May 06:44 PM

Nora's fortitude wins favour

31 May 07:30 PM

Credit goes to whole team

31 May 08:00 PM

Educator 'humbled' by honour

31 May 10:30 PM

He is still on the Sport Northland board but has cut down hours elsewhere "to play a bit more myself the frustrating game of golf and the relaxing hobby of fly fishing. I hope to get better at both".

He is also a Northland Regional Councillor and Northland District Health Board member and formerly - nationally and regionally - The Order of St John, "a fantastic charity".

Save

    Share this article

Latest from Northern Advocate

Northern Advocate

Rewi Spraggon explains Puanga, Matariki’s older brother

19 Jun 10:00 PM
Northern Advocate

Our top Premium stories this year: Special offer for Herald, Viva, Listener

19 Jun 08:11 PM
Northern Advocate

High schoolers chase off man forcibly kissing women at a busy bus terminal

19 Jun 08:00 PM

Jono and Ben brew up a tea-fuelled adventure in Sri Lanka

sponsored
Advertisement
Advertise with NZME.

Latest from Northern Advocate

Rewi Spraggon explains Puanga, Matariki’s older brother

Rewi Spraggon explains Puanga, Matariki’s older brother

19 Jun 10:00 PM

Iwi on the West Coast celebrate Puanga.

Our top Premium stories this year: Special offer for Herald, Viva, Listener

Our top Premium stories this year: Special offer for Herald, Viva, Listener

19 Jun 08:11 PM
High schoolers chase off man forcibly kissing women at a busy bus terminal

High schoolers chase off man forcibly kissing women at a busy bus terminal

19 Jun 08:00 PM
'Reach new heights': Māori tradies share their journeys from challenges to triumph

'Reach new heights': Māori tradies share their journeys from challenges to triumph

19 Jun 05:00 PM
Help for those helping hardest-hit
sponsored

Help for those helping hardest-hit

NZ Herald
  • About NZ Herald
  • Meet the journalists
  • Newsletters
  • Classifieds
  • Help & support
  • Contact us
  • House rules
  • Privacy Policy
  • Terms of use
  • Competition terms & conditions
  • Our use of AI
Subscriber Services
  • The Northern Advocate e-edition
  • Manage your print subscription
  • Manage your digital subscription
  • Subscribe to Herald Premium
  • Subscribe to the Northern Advocate
  • Gift a subscription
  • Subscriber FAQs
  • Subscription terms & conditions
  • Promotions and subscriber benefits
NZME Network
  • The Northern Advocate
  • The New Zealand Herald
  • The Northland Age
  • Waikato Herald
  • Bay of Plenty Times
  • Rotorua Daily Post
  • Hawke's Bay Today
  • Whanganui Chronicle
  • Viva
  • NZ Listener
  • Newstalk ZB
  • BusinessDesk
  • OneRoof
  • Driven Car Guide
  • iHeart Radio
  • Restaurant Hub
NZME
  • About NZME
  • NZME careers
  • Advertise with NZME
  • Digital self-service advertising
  • Book your classified ad
  • Photo sales
  • © Copyright 2025 NZME Publishing Limited
TOP