Orewa College–11 November 2014

Orewa College, located on the Hibiscus Coast north of Auckland, has a significant international exchange program.  The school seeks to enrich international students’ experience in New Zealand by giving them wide exposure to New Zealand culture and natural heritage.  Today, Adrienne Croad, International Students Development Manager brought a group of students from Chile, Germany, Italy and Japan to CUE Haven to explore, learn a little about New Zealand plants and animals and to leave a permanent mark in NZ by helping us build a new walking track.

The group arrived about ten and included Adrienne and students Anne, Enrico, Gretha, Kazuma, Naoki, Nina, Pablo, Rodrigo, Tamara and Yudai.

We spent some time getting acquainted over morning tea and chatted with the students about where they were from and how they were enjoying their New Zealand experience.

Mahrukh then gave an overview of the CUE Haven project.

And Tom gave a safety briefing and short description of the work planned for the day.

Before the group went to work, we took a ride up to the top of the property.

And then took a short walk down to give the students a chance to learn more about CUE Haven and New Zealand plants and animals.

As we walked down, Tom also pointed out aspects of the walking track to give the students an idea of what to expect when they would be working on their track.

When we got down to the new track site we broke into two teams.  One team worked on finishing off some steps a previous group had started while the other group worked on extending the track by benching and clearing.

Finishing off the steps involved cutting out the step sections and levelling the ground so that each step was even and straight as possible.

A particularly challenging task was fitting in the backing boards and nailing the stakes to the board.

But it all worked out well!

The other team worked on clearing vegetation from the track and levelling the surface.  They had to cope with prickly gorse, blackberry and thistles but managed to move the track ahead by about 25 metres—a great effort in a short amount of time.

After a couple of hours work the group took a leisurely walk back to the cottage for a relaxing lunch.

We really enjoyed working with the Orewa international students and were very impressed with what they were able to accomplish in such a short period of time.

We want to thank Adrienne for making all the arrangements for today’s visit and bringing the students out.

And a very big thank you to Adrienne and the students for all their hard work today.  We appreciate your efforts and hope you enjoyed the day.  You have made a lasting contribution to New Zealand natural heritage and the track you built today will be used and enjoyed by visitors for many years to come.

We wish the students an enjoyable stay in New Zealand. We  wish you happiness and success in your future endeavours and we hope that someday you will come back to New Zealand and visit CUE Haven too.

Thanks again!