"Bloody hell!"
Those were the first words that passed Florence Annison's lips when the straight-talking community stalwart opened a letter saying she had been named an Officer of the New Zealand Order of Merit.
The Kerikeri woman has received one of the highest honours given to a Northlander in the 2010 New Year Honours, but plans to celebrate today in typical no-nonsense fashion with "a bit of weeding".
Mrs Annison's community work started in 1971 when she agitated for, then set up, an ambulance service in Whitianga. Later, she was the first volunteer and first woman to train as a paramedic and is still involved with St John as a member of the Kerikeri Area Committee.
She has served on the Eastern Community Board since moving to Kerikeri in 1994 and is now its deputy chair. One of her pet projects as a board member was a skatepark for Kerikeri youth.
She represents the disabled on Dag, a council disability group; one of her current battles is getting a set of doors on the council-leased John Butler Centre that can be opened by someone in a wheelchair.
She has spent the past 10 years driving the Baysport project in Waipapa, a multi-sport facility with "the only sprung floor north of Albany" and already used by 1800 people. The complex is due to be completed in 2010.
The avid historian is also pulling together a Far North archive based at Kerikeri's Procter Library, and has served organisations ranging from Russell Museum to the health board's ethics committee and the Northland Road Safety Forum.
She has chaired Spokssa, the group which stopped the Stone Store Basin being turned into a subdivision, and helped start a health and disability advocacy service to fight for Northlanders who had had a raw deal from the health system.
That's just a few highlights; listing all of Mrs Annison's community work would fill much of this newspaper. So why does she do it?
"If you live in a community, you should contribute to it. It doesn't matter how you do it."
Mrs Annison was awarded a Queen's Service Medal in 1994. Her paid employment has included as a radio operator, reporter and nurse; when she was a practice nurse, Russell GP Richard Annison described her as a dragon, but married her anyway.
Her community service continued even when she was a full-time caregiver to her husband after he was hit by a car and severely injured in 1981 - the same day she graduated as a paramedic. The late Dr Annison spent a year in hospital, then 18 years badly disabled at home.
Ironically, the woman who has today received an honour has for years been battling to have someone else honoured. The World War II resistance heroine Nancy Wake is the New Zealand woman most decorated in war, but the New Zealand Government has never recognised her bravery with a civil honour.
Ms Wake, now well into her 90s, can be assured that Mrs Annison is still fighting to "put things right".
"Hell, yes!" Mrs Annison said.
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