Until Whanganui's Anne Murray got to Wellington to receive her Queen's Service Medal she was thinking it was all "a lot of rubbish".
Arriving at Government House on Tuesday the truth hit home.
"I didn't realise how important the whole thing was. It wasn't until I arrived and thought this is where the Queen and all those dignitary people come that it really hit me."
It was a beautiful occasion with a lot of laughs, she said. And there was another on Thursday in Whanganui - a morning tea in her honour at St Mary's church hall with about 60 people from her family, her church and her work.
Mrs Murray has kept open house at the church's Te Rau Oriwa Marae on Monday to Thursday mornings for the past six years. Before that she had a drop-in centre in Ridgway St, called Anne's Place.