Southern honours: Michael Antony Boyes

Dr Michael Antony Boyes

Services to outdoor recreation and mountain safetyGrowing up in a small rural community helped ignite his passion for the outdoors and now Dr Michael Boyes has been made a member of the New Zealand Order of Merit for his services to outdoor recreation and mountain safety.

The 58-year-old said he was honoured to be given the award, and credited the various "well run" organisations with helping to make his contributions easier.

"It is a pretty exciting but humbling experience."

His interest in the outdoors began as a child growing up in Marton, Manawatu, and he recalled building a canoes out of plywood and canvas for a trip down the nearby Rangitikei River.

Dr Boyes has been involved with outdoor recreation and education for more than 40 years, and was the chairman of the Education Outdoors New Zealand and a life member of the executive board, and is the current chairman of Outdoor New Zealand and the New Zealand Mountain Safety Council's Research Committee.

A former secondary physical education and music teacher, he moved to Dunedin in 1985 to lecture in phys ed at the Dunedin College of Education, before moving to the University of Otago in 1997.

Dr Boyes has worked as a senior lecturer in outdoor education at the School of Physical Education for the last seven years and enjoys both the theory and practical side of teaching.

He was also a founding chairman of the Taranaki Outdoor Pursuits Centre, and a voluntary bushcraft, risk management and abseiling instructor and course director for the Mountain Safety Council.

Dr Boyes was also founding editor of the New Zealand Journal of Outdoor Education and co-author of Deer Hunting in New Zealand: Safety Lessons in the Field.

Other awards he has been honoured with include the New Zealand Mountain Safety Council's 25th Anniversary Award for services to the council in 1991, and a Sparc Supreme Award for Outdoor Recreation in 2007.