01/06/2026
E kore rawa te mihi e mutu ki a koe,
We are thrilled to celebrate with David Rogers, who has been appointed a Member of the New Zealand Order of Merit (MNZM) for his 50 years of service to conservation and to the maunga.
It is a tenure that included bringing a “Māori lens” into DOC planning, the Taranaki Maunga Redress Deed and responding to a new breed of visitor.
Ngā mihi mō to tautoko, manaaki and mahi for our people David.
𝐊𝐢𝐧𝐠’𝐬 𝐁𝐢𝐫𝐭𝐡𝐝𝐚𝐲 𝐇𝐨𝐧𝐨𝐮𝐫𝐬: 𝐇𝐚𝐥𝐟 𝐚 𝐜𝐞𝐧𝐭𝐮𝐫𝐲 𝐨𝐟 𝐜𝐨𝐧𝐬𝐞𝐫𝐯𝐚𝐭𝐢𝐨𝐧 𝐬𝐞𝐫𝐯𝐢𝐜𝐞 𝐞𝐚𝐫𝐧𝐬 𝐓𝐚𝐫𝐚𝐧𝐚𝐤𝐢 𝐫𝐚𝐧𝐠𝐞𝐫 𝐌𝐍𝐙𝐌
𝑇𝑎𝑟𝑎𝑛𝑎𝑘𝑖 𝐷𝑎𝑖𝑙𝑦 𝑁𝑒𝑤𝑠
David Rogers spent 50 years working for the Department of Conservation.
And for his service to conservation and Māori, Rogers (Te Ātiawa, Ngāti Ruanui, Taranaki, Ngāti Mutunga, Ngāti Maniapoto) has been made a Member of the New Zealand Order of Merit (MNZM) in the King’s Birthday Honours.
“I was employed by the park board originally and then we got taken over by Lands and Survey in '77 and then in '87 they formed the Department of Conservation,” he said.
In the early part of his career he spent years living in the bush, working on tracks, cutting them, constructing them.
“My major role in the park was dealing with the recreation stuff and visitor experiences. So, I eventually became the senior ranger responsible for managing all that.”
That included track development, huts, buildings, public facilities and signage.
While he reckons he has walked 1000s of kilometres across Taranaki Maunga over the years, and reached the summit 20 times, his job sometimes took him further afield.
In 2004, he was sent to Gallipoli for 10 days with two Ministry of Heritage and Culture staff members to come up with some options to develop a walking trail from Anzac Cove up to Chunuk Bair, a walk of about 7km, he said.
“My job was to look at options to develop it so we could tell the New Zealand story of Colonel Malone and his campaign taking Chunuk Bair.”
The Gallipoli Peninsula was now an international peace park, he said, and they talked to the administration team who looked after the park.
“They asked us how are we going to deal with the wolves and the snakes that are up in the peninsula. We look at each other and say snakes, wolves, we didn't see any of them.”
The next questions were around how the Kiwis were going to deal with all the undetonated and unexploded ordnance that were laying around - and the 16,000 unrecovered bodies still lying on the peninsula, he said.
Rogers and his team had been “fossicking all over the place. So the next few days when we went out there not once did we venture off the beaten track”.
He went over as a leading expert in track construction and costings and came back with four options, he said.
“Originally it was going to be me going back with a team to develop this track, but the park administration people said they would do it themselves, but I've never been back to know what they actually did.”
Rogers doesn’t have a favourite walking track on Taranaki Maunga but his favourite places are the montane forest and the alpine areas, he said.
“The alpine areas, it doesn't matter where it is, I love it up there. Great views. You're up in the herb fields, so you get all these herb smells when you're out there.”
One of his roles was looking after heritage sites. What he found at the significant Pukerangiora Pā worried him, he said.
“I saw sheep grazing, picnic tables... people were dumping rubbish. This is a place where over 1200 people were massacred, and over 300 women and children jumped to their deaths into the Waitara River. But you wouldn't know it unless people tell the story.”
Determined to stop the site from being treated as a casual “fun area,” he pushed through initial sensitivities to initiate its development as a Heritage Icon site.
While addressing the painful history was difficult for hapū, they have now taken over the project management.
“It's good news to hear and to see the hapū themselves own the story and develop the site, giving it the respect it deserves.”
