The environmentalist, author and bookstore owner said she initially considered "refusing" the honour, "but I decided that I would accept it because I wanted to accept it on behalf of all the people that fight for the environment and conservation, not just me".
Mrs Shaw has been involved in environmental campaigning for several decades: in 1984 she protested the removal of mature native trees in Manapouri. She was actively involved in the Save Fiordland campaign that defeated a proposal to construct a monorail access through Fiordland National Park.
In 1989, she joined Earth Trust’s fight to ban drift netting in southern oceans.
She was awarded the National Eco Tourism Award twice for her business Fiordland Ecology Holidays, and with her husband she established the Breaksea Conservation Fund to finance environmental projects, including the removal of all predators from Pomona and Rona Islands in Lake Manapouri, allowing the Haast tokoeka kiwi to be introduced.
She also co-created and co-chaired the Fiordland Sewage Options group to oppose the Southland District Council’s plan to discharge semi-treated sewage on to land beside the Te Anau-Manapouri Airport, and helped to shape the Te Anau-Manapouri Water Scheme.
"I’ve always believed that Mother Nature is our bank.
"If we didn’t have the natural environment and the protected areas, then I would like to know where tourism was today."
In recent years, she has become a successful author: her memoir The Bookseller at the End of the World has become an international bestseller.
"I really didn’t think it would sell, but my publishers said it would. I am staggered at how well it’s been received."
After promising her husband many years ago she would retire, Mrs Shaw said she planned to wind down some of her activities over the next year.
But she said she would continue to fight for the environment.
"I hope we can save the southern dotterels on Stewart Island, because we’ve only got 104, but this breeding season’s looking really, really good."
Ruth Philliss Shaw
Manapouri
KSM
Conservation
