Royal honour for a late starter

ROYAL RECOGNITION: Tom Baker QSM.

Tom Baker was past the first flush of youth when he arrived in Kerikeri 24 years ago, but it took him just four days to get stuck in to helping the community. And now he has been recognised for the commitment he has shown to the Far North for more than two decades.

Mr Baker, now an 86-year-old retired engineer, who was awarded the Queen's Service Medal in the New Year honours list, said he was not expecting the honour.

"I was just taken back a little bit. I didn't expect anything like this," he said.

He and his wife Lesley moved to Kerikeri in 1990, and four days later a bunch of eager locals came knocking at his door. They had heard he was a retired engineer, and asked him to help save the historic Stone Store.

"News gets around very quickly," Mr Baker said.

He duly inspected the store and could not find nothing wrong with it, eventually going on to play a central role in the community's bid to keep it open to the public. It had certainly been in need of maintenance, he said, but there had been no reason to close it.

That was just the beginning though. He would later be appointed chairman of the community trust that raised $1.13 million to buy and refurbish Kerikeri's Kingston House, which remains home to many community and support groups, but is perhaps best known as a Far North District councillor for four terms from 2001. He suspects that towards the end of that time he was the oldest councillor in the country, while he also served as a member of the Bay of Islands-Whangaroa Community Board.

He also held executive roles on the Bay of Islands Heritage Trail Foundation, the Kerikeri Civil Advisory Trust, Greypower Kerikeri, the national Greypower Federation, the Kerikeri Probus Club and Bay of Islands SPCA. And he is a Justice of the Peace and a marriage celebrant.

"I think it's just, kind of, recognition of the efforts and things I've put in," Mr Baker said, adding that his wife, who died eight years ago, would be "amazed" he had received a Royal honour.

"It's something that doesn't really enter into your mind," he said.

"I had the time so I got involved".