The Kings Birthday Honours list 2025 is out. Photo / Max Mumby, Getty Images
Waikato community stalwarts have gained royal attention; at least 15 people with connections to the region have been recognised in this year’s King’s Birthday Honours.
Overall, 188 Kiwis have been recognised, the majority located in the Auckland and Canterbury areas.
The highest honour awarded to a Waikato local is the Companion of the New Zealand Order of Merit.
Dr Lesley Kay Rameka, of Taupō, received the honour for her services to Māori and early childhood education.
Rameka (Ngāti Raukawa, Ngāti Tukorehe) is an influential scholar and the leading Māori academic in early learning in New Zealand.
She dedicated more than 30 years to ensuring tamariki have quality education and a deep understanding of te ao Māori and tikanga Māori.
Her involvement has been central to Kaupapa Māori learner assessment in the sector, providing research guidance and resources for all ECE teachers to use Māori concepts and values in the classroom.
She was project coordinator for Te Whatu Pōkeka: Kaupapa Māori assessment for learning published in 2009 and she has led or written key curriculum resources for the Ministry of Education.
Rameka was also an Expert Advisory Group member for implementation of Te Whāriki in 2017 and she has been principal or associate investigator with several Teaching Learning and Research Initiative, Ministry of Social Development and Marsden-funded research projects.
Her research has shaped early childcare services for the wellbeing of Māori and Pacific children.
In 2021 she was awarded Te Tohu Pae Tawhiti by the New Zealand Association for Research in Education.
While Tony Falkenstein is living in Auckland, he has a connection to the Waikato.
Falkenstein was made a Companion of the New Zealand Order of Merit for his services to philanthropy and business education. His work included funding students from Waikato University’s Bachelor of Business Programme to undertake exchanges with international business schools.
He was a member of the AUT Business School Advisory Board from 2011 to 2018 and also joined the Waikato Management School Business Advisory Board in 2017.
He recently donated $500,000 to the Waikato Management School for international study tours.
There are a few Officers of the New Zealand Order of Merit in Waikato.
Peter Carty, of Tūrangi, received the honour for his services to fly-fishing.
He is considered a master fly-tier, the art of tying feathers to imitate small organisms to catch trout and salmon, in the sport of flyfishing.
His feather patterns are used in New Zealand, the United States, Australia, Europe and Asia and he has been named among the top five fly-tiers worldwide.
Peter Nation, of Hamilton, received the accolade for his services to the agricultural industry and governance.
Nation was heavily involved in the New Zealand National Fieldays Society, first as member of the board and then as chief executive.
He has also been a board member and chairman of the Waikato Chamber of Commerce since 2019, managed the New Zealand Animal Management business unit, and was National Sales Manager of the Gallagher Group from 2004 to 2016.
Tim Southee, also of Hamilton, was made an Officer of the New Zealand Order of Merit for his services to cricket.
Southee is a former New Zealand international cricketer who has captained the New Zealand cricket team in all formats of the game, and is the Black Caps’ all-time leading international wicket-taker with 770 dismissals across all formats.
He made his Test cricket debut for New Zealand against England in 2008, and was the mainstay of the New Zealand attack in all three forms of the game until his retirement from international cricket in 2024.
Southee appeared in four ICC Cricket World Cups, seven T20 World Cups, two Champions Trophy tournaments, and a World Test Championship Final.
He played 394 matches for the Black Caps across all formats, claiming 776 wickets, scoring 3,288 runs, and taking 195 catches.
He is the only player in world cricket to claim more than 300 Test wickets, 200 ODI wickets and 100 T20 wickets.
Sarah Walker, of Cambridge, received the honour for her services to BMX and sports governance.
She has been an internationally accomplished BMX rider and currently represents New Zealand as a member of the International Olympic Committee (IOC).
Walker is a 12-time BMX World Championship medallist, including winning gold medals in 2007 and 2009.
She competed at the Beijing 2008 Olympic Games, placing fourth, and London 2012 where she won silver, becoming New Zealand’s first Olympic medallist in BMX Racing.
She has also promoted sports in schools, organised community outreach programs, and worked with policymakers to secure funding and resources for sports facilities, programmes, and events.
Meanwhile, Gary Lane, while an Auckland resident, has a connection to Waikato.
Lane was made an Officer of the New Zealand Order of Merit for his services to conservation and philanthropy.
He built a predator-proof fence around his property, the Wairakei Golf and Sanctuary, to protect a range of native flora and fauna.
Since building the fence in 2012, his property has been used to care for young kiwi from Remutaka, Tongariro and Taranaki until they have grown to a suitable weight for release into the wild.
More than 120 kiwi have hatched at his property, which has helped form a founding population at Sanctuary Mountain Maungatautari to support a release plan for kiwi across Taranaki, Whanganui and South Waikato.
In 2019 he funded the construction of a hatchery and incubation facility at Wairakei Golf and Sanctuary.
There are also two Members of the New Zealand Order of Merit in Waikato.
Welmoed (Chris) Duggan, of Ātiamuri received the honour for her services to science education.
After 15 years as a biochemist and science teacher, Duggan was concerned by the lack of science education at the primary level.
In response she founded House of Science in 2014, a not-for-profit organisation with the mission to ensure science education is accessible, engaging and effective for primary school students.
Under her leadership as Chief Executive Officer, The House of Science has since provided more than 200,000 students with bilingual, curriculum-aligned science kits delivered to hundreds of schools across New Zealand.
She has earned numerous accolades for her contributions, including the Tauranga Girls’ College staff innovation award in 2009, Supreme Winner of the Trustpower Tauranga Community Awards for outstanding community impact in 2015, and the 2022 Wintec Science Teacher/Educator Award.
Ellesse Andrews, while originally from Christchurch, went to school in Cambridge, studied at the University of Waikato and had a base in Cambridge.
Andrews (Waitaha, Kāti Māmoe, Kāi Tahu) received the accolade for her services to cycling.
She is a world champion cyclist and four-time Olympic medallist that set a new world youth record at the 2017 Junior Track Cycling World Championships.
She became the second New Zealander to win three medals in a single Olympic Games, and now ranks as New Zealand’s sixth most successful Olympian.
Andrews has given back to the community through speaking engagements, mental health awareness campaigns and voluntary roles at community events, including Cambridge’s Cycling Festival.
There are two Companions of the King’s Service Order in Waikato.
Marilyn Yeoman, of Hamilton, received the honour for her services to education and the community.
She established the Friends of the Gardens group to support the world-class Hamilton Gardens and taught at various schools around Waikato between 1962 and 2005, including eight years as Principal of Tamahere Model Country School.
During her term as President of the New Zealand Principals Federation in the mid-1990s, she established a representation of Māori Principals on its executive and guided the establishment of the first Principal Leadership Centre at Massey University.
Yeoman has also volunteered for her local hospice, been active in the St John Ambulance Association, and knits blankets to donate to every refugee family resettling in Hamilton.
Tyrone Marks, of Hamilton, received the accolade for his services to survivors of abuse in care.
Marks (Ngāti Raukawa) has been advocating for redress for survivors and recognition of events which occurred at the Lake Alice Psychiatric Hospital Child and Adolescent Unit (Lake Alice Unit).
His contributions have helped highlight the abuse and torture suffered by approximately 360 children and vulnerable adults between 1972 and 1978.
His contribution to the Royal Commission of Inquiry into Historical Abuse in State Care and in the Care of Faith-based Institutions has helped inform the Lake Alice Unit section of the report.
As a member of the Crown Response Unit’s Redress Design Group, Mr Marks has helped develop a survivor-led design for a proposed new redress system following the report.
There are at least three recipients of the King’s Service Medal in Waikato.
Ross Cooper, of Waihi, received the honour for his services to rugby.
Cooper has made significant contributions to rugby at all levels for more than 50 years.
Cooper played for Wairarapa-Bush, Centurions, and the Thames Valley Rugby Union, serving as Captain, and variously as Team Manager and Selector Coach between 1984 and 2007.
He has been a Senior Coach for Counties Manukau, the Chiefs Super Rugby Team, and has been a selector for various New Zealand Under 17, Under 19, New Zealand Colts/Under 21s, Academy, Divisional, and Heartland teams.
He was an All Blacks Selector and Assistant Coach from 1994 to 1998 and New Zealand Rugby Resource Coach from 1995 to 2004.
He has been a key driver behind the development of women’s rugby in Thames Valley since 2021.
And Tony and Jenny Enderby, of Cambridge, received the accolade for their services to conservation.
The Enderbys have volunteered for New Zealand’s oldest marine reserve, the Cape Rodney to Okakari Point (CROP) Marine Reserve and for the Department of Conservation from the early 1990s until 2023.
They began as visitor guides for Tiritiri Matangi Island, going on to volunteer as Maui Dolphin observers, visitor supervisors for Hauturu/Little Barrier Island for more than 10 years, and undertook diving surveys off Aotea/Great Barrier Island.
They established the Leigh Penguin Project in 2018, setting up a group of volunteers, trapping networks and erecting penguin boxes along a stretch of coastal habitat from Ti Point to Goat Island.
The Enderbys have also written and illustrated numerous articles and books on marine life and marine reserves for local and international audiences, including the book A Guide to New Zealand Marine Reserves.
Danielle Zollickhofer is the Waikato news director and a multimedia journalist at the Waikato Herald. She joined NZME in 2021 and is based in Hamilton.
The victim, Eltje Malzbender, was still able to compete in the 2020 Tokyo Paralympics.