KEY POINTS:
Trevor Francis Mokaraka (deceased) and John Bell Fenton Penetana - NZ Bravery Star
On December 10, 1999, in the Hokianga town of Rawene, John Fenton Penetana and Trevor Mokaraka went to help Te Huia Hape after her partner, Brian Aporo, cut the throats of their two children.
Mr Mokaraka was fatally stabbed in the chest but Ms Hape and Mr Fenton Penetana grappled with Aporo and managed to escape.
Aporo was found not guilty by reason of insanity for the three murders and two attempted murders.
Yesterday, Mr Mokaraka's son, Trevor said of the award: "I think it is good ... [but] I miss him."
Matthew Hollis - NZ Bravery Medal
Takapau meatworker Matthew Hollis went from late-night partygoer to hero early on November 26, 1999.
Mr Hollis and friends were celebrating a night off work about 4am when a house in the Hawkes Bay town went up in flames.
The men could hear children screaming inside, so Mr Hollis led them into the house. As windows exploded around them, the men retrieved six children.
Mr Hollis went back into the blazing house three times until everyone was accounted for.
Geoffrey Frank Knight - NZ Bravery Decoration
About midnight on June 4, 2001, when he was a police constable, Mr Knight went to a house in the South Island town of Tapanui, where a man had been seriously assaulted by his brother, who had broken in.
The brother threatened to kill a woman and her two children, and had tried to open a firearms cabinet.
After a violent struggle, Mr Knight restrained the man for 30 minutes until firefighters arrived to help him.
Patrick Martin John Burke - NZ Bravery Medal
The former Cambridge detective was on a patrol when he was told a woman had been shot and wounded, and her attacker had left in a hijacked car.
Mr Burke chased the offender to an industrial site, where the man emerged from his car with a shotgun.
Mr Burke, who was unarmed, climbed out of his car and told the man three times to put the gun down.
The man then put the shotgun in his own mouth and pulled the trigger, seriously wounding himself. He was later convicted of attempting to murder the woman.
Damian Peter John Klavs - NZ Bravery Star
In June 1999, Wellington Constable Damian Klavs had a sawn-off shotgun shoved in his chest after he stopped a stolen vehicle. The man pulled the trigger, but the safety catch was on and the gun did not fire.
Constable Klavs gave chase as the gunman sped off. His attacker then rammed his police car, squashing it against a wall and pinning Constable Klavs' driver's door closed.
He was forced to run for his life as the man followed him in his van, abusing and threatening to kill him.
His attacker was later caught and convicted of attempted murder.
Paul Lindsay Chandler, Peter James Duncan and Graham John Watkin Jones - NZ Bravery Medal
The three pursued an armed bank robber in an Akaroa street in October 2001, even though the robber at one point turned and pointed his rifle at the trio. When the robber got into a stolen vehicle, Mr Chandler broke the passenger window in an unsuccessful attempt to delay his escape.
Thanks to their information, the robber was later caught and convicted.
Graham Robert Ford - NZ Bravery Medal
When Sergeant Graham Ford arrived at a house in Northcote in November 2001, a man had already assaulted two women, threatened to kill everyone present with a carving knife, thrown a television set at a constable and resisted pepper spray.
As the man threatened to stab his one-month-old baby daughter, Mr Ford tackled him. The baby was unharmed.
Daniel James Cleaver - NZ Bravery Medal
At 1 o'clock on a September morning in 2002, Constable Cleaver spotted two men breaking into a pharmacy in Okaihau, Northland.
Mr Cleaver tried to stop them by smashing the driver's window of their car and snatching the keys, but they drove off, sideswiping his police car.
Twice during a high-speed chase, the burglars rammed the police vehicle, before fleeing into bush.
Caine Francis Spick - NZ Bravery Medal
The 15-year-old was fishing from Tinopai Wharf in Kaipara Harbour in April 2003 when he was told a child who couldn't swim had fallen in.
Mr Spick jumped into the fast-flowing water to the 7-year-old boy, and was dragged under several times as both were swept 300m away. They were rescued by a fisherman in a boat.
David Leonard O'Loughlin - NZ Bravery Medal
On July 11, 2002, David O'Loughlin and a friend were driving on SH1 north of Whangarei towards Kawakawa.
Between Whakapara and Hukerenui the vehicle they were following, containing two women, careered over a metal barrier and into the swollen river.
Mr O'Loughlin stopped and plunged into the water, rescuing one woman while the vehicle was sinking.
He then returned to the then fully submerged vehicle and dived, making about five unsuccessful attempts to retrieve the other woman. He and his companion then comforted the rescued woman until police and ambulance staff arrived.
Mark Charles Smith - New Zealand Bravery Medal
On July 13, 2001, Mark Smith was travelling to Christchurch along Highway 73 near Kirwee, when the vehicle in front collided with a concrete truck. He immediately stopped to help the woman driver, trapped inside her car under the truck.
As flames licked around them, he forced open the car door and freed the woman from her seatbelt.
Hamish Everett Neal - New Zealand Bravery Medal
On February 10, 2000, 15-year-old Hamish Neal was on a school trip to the Waihao River, south Canterbury. While swimming in the river, a fellow student got into trouble and sank beneath the surface. Hamish tried to pull him to safety, but was pulled down with him and both students drowned. Both were members of a Waimate High School special class for children with learning and behavioural difficulty. His mother, Carol Neal, said yesterday that she and her family were "very, very proud" of Hamish.
