Who we are
Originally, the Pukeiti Rhododendron Trust (PRT) was overseen by a Board drawn from throughout New Zealand, and by a New Plymouth-based Executive Committee, which undertook local management. A Ladies Committee was established in 1960.
The Board and Executive merged into a single Board in 1995, and the Ladies Committee was replaced with a Members Committee.
Currently, our Board includes the following people, bringing together a vast range of skills and experience in the rhododendron, horticultural and not-for-profit worlds.
Meet the board members
Gordon Bailey, Chair | Wanaka
After completing a Diploma in Horticulture and a Diploma in Parks and Recreation Administration at Lincoln College, Gordon has had a long and varied career in parks and recreation working mostly in the southern regions of the South Island. Since 2018, he has been the Parks and Recreation Manager for the Central Otago District Council.
Throughout his career, Gordon has been actively involved in a wide range of professional organisations. He has served on both the Board Appointments Panel and the Regional Advisory Group for Recreation Aotearoa, in recognition of which, he received the NZRA Ian Galloway Award in 2000 and was awarded a Fellowship in 2012. He has served as International Parks and Recreation Association Asia-Pacific World Commissioner and then Secretary, attending several international parks congresses. Gordon was also a founding member of Yardstick, a national benchmarking project covering parks assets, services and related operations, serving on their Technical Advisory Group since 2002.
Gordon’s volunteer and community involvement is also extensive, having spent many years involved with garden clubs in Gore, Wakatipu and Wanaka, and Rotary Clubs in Queenstown, Hamilton, and Wanaka. He has also served on the Otago Conservation Board and Waikato Conservation Board holding Deputy Chair and Chair roles.
Other memberships include: the International Dendrology Society (since 1988); NZ Horticultural Industry Training Organisation, serving as a board member (1998–2000) and Chairman (2000–07); NZ Rhododendron Association (1984–2020), serving as President (2009–12); and the Royal NZ Institute of Horticulture (since 1985), being elected a Fellow in 2022.
Gordon has been a member of the PRT for many years, serving as a Board member since 2003, and President since 2012.
Lynn Bublitz, QSO, JP | New Plymouth
As a young man, Lynn completed an honours degree in botany at Victoria University, focusing on New Zealand natives. He returned to Taranaki to teach Biology, Science and Horticulture at New Plymouth Boys’ High School for 25 years. After spending 15 years there as Deputy Headmaster, he was appointed Principal of Inglewood High School before retiring from teaching in 2001.
At the same time, Lynn served 27 years as a district councillor for the New Plymouth District Council, acting as Chair for a number of committees including Community Services and Parks. He served as deputy mayor for six years from 2001-2007, finally retiring from the council in 2012.
Lynn has also been involved with many community organisations over many years, including as trustee of TAFT and WOMAD. In 2007 he was awarded a QSO for services to Education, Local Government, Arts and the Community.
Lynn’s relationship with Pukeiti began in the mid 1960s, through his friendship with well-known Taranaki plantsmen Alan Jellyman and Graham Smith. For 25 years he was on the garden’s executive committee serving as chair and in the 1990s he joined the Pukeiti board, spending several years as chair. While chair, he negotiated the partnership arrangement with the TRC. Lynn and his wife Robin, who are both Life Members, have led a number of trips to China. Lynn also edits the New Zealand Rhododendron Journal, and serves on the Trust’s Garden Forum, liaising with Taranaki Regional Council staff to grow and enhance the garden.
John Eagles, QSM | Pukeiti Trust Fund Representative | New Plymouth
John Eagles came to New Plymouth in 1969, joining Govett Quilliam, the city’s oldest legal firm as a law honours graduate. Making partner in 1971, he spent 48 years working for GQ, retiring in 2016.
Away from the office, he spent just as many hours volunteering as a legal advisor for not-for-profit organisations and community charities. He has served as member, trustee or chairman of multiple local organisations including the Govett-Brewster Foundation, Taranaki Anglican Trust Board, CCS Disability Action North Taranaki, Taranaki Community Rugby Trust, New Plymouth Boys’ High School Board, Frankley School Board, Taranaki District Law Society, New Plymouth Opera House Trust Board, and New Plymouth North Rotary.
John’s first involvement with the Trust, was sitting at the gate in the rain with his wife, Karen, in the early 1970s, collecting donations for the garden. He served on the Pukeiti Trust Fund board for many years, and continues to serve as a PRT Board Member. He was made a Life Member in 2004.
John was awarded the Queen’s Service Medal in 2008 for community work, and a KiwiBank Local Hero Award in 2010, as part of the inaugural New Zealander of the Year awards. He has also represented New Zealand multiple times at both the world masters swimming championships and the world age group triathlon championships.
Dr Sue Gardiner | Palmerston North
A molecular geneticist, Sue worked at Plant & Food Research (and its predecessors) since 1980, where she founded and led the award-winning Mapping & Markers Team. Retiring in 2019, she is now an Honorary Fellow of Plant & Food Research.
Sue has received multiple awards throughout her career, including the Science New Zealand Plant & Food Research Lifetime Achievement Award in 2017, the Prime Minister’s Science Prize in 2017 as a member of the Psa Response Team (Pseudomonas syringae pv. Actinidiae, the kiwifruit virus discovered in the Bay of Plenty in late 2010), and the Outstanding International Horticulturist Award of the American Society for Horticultural Science in 2009.
In recognition of her outstanding contributions to global horticultural science throughout her career, in 2020 Sue was elected a Fellow of the Royal Society Te Apārangi and was also awarded an International Society for Horticultural Science (ISHS) Fellowship where she is a Member of the Division Plant Genetic Resources and Biotechnology member as well as Chair of the Working Group Biotechnology of Horticultural Species.
Sue has been a member of the New Zealand Rhododendron Association (NZRA) Council for many years, completing her second term as President in 2023. She is an International Board Member of the Rhododendron Species Botanical Garden in Washington, USA and has served on the PRT Board since 2019.
Sue is a key member of the New Zealand ex situ Rhododendron Conservation Project and together with Marion has recently co-supervised a Massey University PhD student studying the diversity of Rhododendron in New Zealand.
Diane Jordan | New Plymouth
Diane’s first visit to Pukeiti was as a child, with her parents. All she remembers of that visit was the very long winding drive over a gravel road and being dreadfully car sick.
Fortunately the road had improved, somewhat, by 1997 when she began working part time at Pukeiti as the weekend receptionist and then, shortly thereafter, the full time week day receptionist.
Working at Pukeiti, with its extremely limited budget for office supplies was a challenge, but not to be put off, when the Cafe Manager/Chef position became vacant Diane also took over the running of the café over the quieter winter and weekend days, working with the remaining café staff until another manager was hired.
One of the highlights of Diane’s time at Pukeiti was the amazing numbers of volunteers who stepped up to help Pukeiti during the annual Taranaki Rhododendron Festival. Putting together the volunteer roster was made so much easier by people who willingly gave up their time to help out.
Diane was appointed Administration Officer from 2001-2010, Board Secretary from 2010-2016, and served as Secretary of the Members’ Committee until 2022. She was made a Life Member in 2012.
Diane was elected to the Board in 2019, bringing with her 27 years of knowledge and experience at Pukeiti.
Dr Marion MacKay | Tokomaru
Marion is a Senior Lecturer in Environment Management and Doctoral Supervisor, School of Agriculture and Environment, at Massey University Te Kunenga ki Pūrehuroa. She specialises in plant biodiversity and conservation, particularly ex situ conservation.
Marion joined the PRT in 2004. Her first contribution to the Trust was to survey the Pukeiti forest, recording every plant, native and exotic to be found. In 2011 she assembled the photographs she took during the survey into a well annotated book, Plants of Pukeiti Forest.
A member of the Board since 2013, Marion has made a significant contribution to the conservation and enhancement of the collections at Pukeiti: she leads the New Zealand ex situ Rhododendron Conservation Project team; has published about 25 articles and reports on Rhododendron conservation since 2016; and has co-supervised two PhD students studying the diversity of Rhododendron in NZ and its significance to conservation. Working with international colleagues, she is now leading the development of a conservation strategy for the genus.
Since 2012, Marion has also monitored the Pukeiti Vireya Collection, ensuring its integrity is maintained. Her research skills have proved many vireya rhododendrons were growing in NZ before 1998, which means they have now been added to the NZ Plant Data Base. This now allows the importation of seed, especially wild collected seed, to increase the genetic diversity and therefore resilience of these species.
A member of the steering committee of the Global Conservation Consortium for Rhododendron (UK), Marion is also a member of Botanic Gardens Conservation International (UK), The Global Trees Campaign and IUCN Species Survival Commission (UK), the Rhododendron Camellia & Magnolia Group (Forum) of The Royal Horticultural Society (UK), the, the American Rhododendron Society, the Rhododendron Species Foundation (USA), and the International Dendrology Society. In New Zealand she also belongs to the New Zealand Institute of Agricultural and Horticultural Science and the New Zealand Rhododendron Association. She has been a Fellow of the Royal New Zealand Institute of Horticulture since 1997, was appointed to the NZ Indigenous Flora Seed Bank project in 2013, and was made a Life Member of the PRT in 2023.
Donald McIntyre, Taranaki Regional Council Representative | New Plymouth
Donald and his wife Linda farm dairy cows on their farm at Ratapiko. They are also kept busy in their large gardens, welcoming visitors during the summer months and hosting weddings, events and guests in their on-farm accommodation.
Off the farm, Donald has long been involved with the Taranaki branch of the Federated Farmers, serving as president from 2017-2019, and has also been involved with the Taranaki Rural Support Trust. He is currently serving his third term on the Taranaki Regional Council as councillor for the North Taranaki Constituency, sitting on the Operations and Regulatory Committee, the Policy and Planning Committee, and the Executive, Audit and Risk Committee. He is also the TRC appointee to the Taranaki Solid Waste Management Committee.
Donald has pretty much always been involved with the Pukeiti Rhododendron Trust. His parents, Orrel and John, joined the Trust in the very early years and have been staunch supporters ever since. Donald and his brother have also been members since they were quite young.
Donald’s father John served on the Board in the 1990s, and Donald himself is now serving his second stint on the Board as the designated Taranaki Regional Council Representative.
Neil Tapsell, Deputy Chair | New Plymouth
Eighteen years ago, Neil Tapsell and his partner Linda purchased a 2 hectare property, thinking they’d just tidy up the native trees, scrub and weeds at the bottom of the hill and leave it at that.
Despite both having full time day jobs—Neil is General Manager at Pioneer Manufacturing Ltd in New Plymouth, manufacturer of MetroFires—their garden, Kōwhai, is now a Garden of National Significance, having being awarded five-star status from the New Zealand Gardens Trust in 2021.
A regular destination in the Taranaki Garden Fringe Festival over the past 10 years or so, their garden now holds 965 rhododendrons, azaleas, vireyas, more than 50 colourful maples and a steep woodland of native trees, including about 60 kōwhai. There is also an orchard of more than 60 fruit trees, a berry house and a 60m² vegetable garden.
With an ever expanding collection of rhododendrons, Neil joined the PRT Board in 2019 and has recently stepped in to the role of Deputy Chair.
