Bud Jones celebrated being awarded a Queen's Service Medal (QSM) by breaking out the bubbly with a champagne breakfast shared with wife Elizabeth this morning.
"The real stuff too, French champagne," he said.
Anyone who has been to the Jones' Nireaha property would attest that should any man deserve an honour for his devotion to conservation and music, it should be Bud Jones.
He has spent literally years creating a wildlife paradise on the couple's 85ha property, building five large lakes, 21 ponds and hand-planting over 30,000 native and exotic trees.
The remarkable conservation effort has required years of day-on-day heavy work and gardening on a scale few people could comprehend, and by using only his own money.
Mr Jones said " it was kind of goofy, really" but he was so driven to create the wetland to benefit native, endemic, introduced waterfowl and wading birds that he often came in from the land "shaking like a leaf from the cold".
"Elizabeth would tap me a hot bath and when I got in the water would turn into a mud bath from all the soil I was carrying on my body," he said.
The result has been an incredible vista and outstanding habitat with secure nesting, feeding and resting cover for many species, including endangered birds.
Making the achievement all the more remarkable is that the Pokai Parera Farms property is a wildlife oasis in a sea of grass created by the systematic clearance and destruction of lowland native forest.
The property is protected in perpetuity by a Queen Elizabeth 11 Open Space Covenant.
Apart from conservation Mr Jones has had a distinguished 39-year career as a professional musician.
He has been a percussionist with the New Zealand Symphony Orchestra (NZSO), featuring prominently in the concert repertoire, especially the rhythm section as soloist for some of the great pop orchestra conductors.
These included Arthur Fieldler, Stanley Black, Tony Hatch, Ron Goodwin and John Dankworth.
Mr Jones retired from the NZSO in 2005 and played his final two concerts with the orchestra in the Albert Hall, London and the Concertgebouw in Amsterdam.
Mr Jones also served as music educator and musical director for the New Zealand National Youth Jazz Orchestra, the New Zealand National Youth High School Jazz Orchestra, Victoria University Big Band and drummer and musical director of the Wellington and New Zealand Jazz Orchestras.
He is an artist teacher with the New Zealand School of Music at Victoria University.