Visit By Unitec Academic Staff—11 November 2013

We’ve been extremely happy with our relationship with Unitec and the valuable insights that students and lecturers from many disciplines and departments have provided.  To build on our many successes, on 11 November, the senior Unitec academic staff came out for a meeting and tour of the property.

The objective was to give everyone a chance to see the latest progress on the project and to discuss next steps and future plans.  Joining us were Angela Dale and Mel Galbraith from the Department of Natural Sciences, Ravi Bhat and Sukhesh Sukumaran from the Department of Management and Marketing, and Marcus Williams, Associate Dean of  Research for the Department of Design and Visual Arts.

The group arrived at about ten and we had a short meeting over morning tea to discuss the objectives for the day and to brief everyone on the various projects currently underway.

We then went for a tour of the property and took a walk down the gully walking track.

At the end of the walk, we had a relaxing lunch and additional discussion.

Because one of our longer term goals is to achieve synergies with other environmental projects in the Kaipara area, we then went over to our neighbours’ at the Mataia Restoration project.  We took a short walk around the historic Mataia Homestead and the beautiful gardens before the group headed back to town.

We had a truly enjoyable and productive day.  It was a great chance to showcase some of our activities and also to discuss current and future projects.

We want to thank Ravi for arranging the meeting, and thank you all for taking time from your schedules to join us.  And most importantly, thank you very much for your interest in CUE Haven and your support.  We are very excited about our partnership with Unitec as it gives students from many disciplines an opportunity to work on real world projects to gain practical experience while contributing to a community project.

We look forward to seeing you all again soon.