Air New Zealand Digital Strategy Team—3 July 2017

Today another great group of technology professionals from Air New Zealand made a big contribution to CUE Haven by doing an amazing amount of planting on a cold, wet day.

The group arrived early and included Daniel, Eileen, Fiona, Kieran, Mike N., Mike Z., Paul, Rosanne, Satnam, Tony, Yvette and Yvonne.  Yvette is a CUE Haven veteran, having also been out with an earlier Air New Zealand team last month.

We got acquainted over morning tea and then Mahrukh gave a short history of the CUE Haven project and Thomas gave a description of the work planned and a safety briefing.

The weather forecast had been for light showers but it was pouring when the group arrived.  Fortunately it cleared up a bit after morning tea and we went to work.

The plan for the day was to do some restoration planting in the wetlands.  We planted flax, cabbage trees, cyperes and carex as well as some long-lived kahikatea.  It was challenging planting.  Over the years, the invasive Mercer grass has taken over in some parts of the wetland and one way to control it from spreading is to plant hardy flaxes and cyperes that will shade it out.  In order to do the planting, it is necessary to dig down through the thick grass.

Because it was the wetlands, you also had to be careful of getting wet from below!

And there were also the periodic rain showers that got everyone wet from above:

But the group was very enthusiastic and hard-working and we even had to bring out two more loads of plants to keep them busy!

When we were finished, we carried all the gear back and  got cleaned up.

The fantastic team even helped clean up the spades.

After a relaxing lunch we went for a short tour and walk so that the team could see more of the property.

It was a wonderful day and a big thank you to Yvette for organising yet another fantastically successful Air New Zealand trip to CUE Haven.

And our many thanks to everyone in the hard working team.  It was great meeting you all and working with you and we truly appreciate the contribution you have made to CUE Haven and the planet.  You were all so enthusiastic and accomplished a lot in some challenging planting conditions and uncooperative weather.

The CUE Haven wetlands play an important role in the overall health of the regenerating bush and also of the Araparera River and Kaipara Harbour.  Your planting efforts have helped improve the quality of the wetlands which are becoming a home to many native plants, birds and animals.  The area you planted will also be enjoyed by visitors for years to come.

We hope you will come back and assist again next year, but more importantly we would love to have you out for a leisurely visit with your family and friends to explore and enjoy your CUE Haven community reserve.

Thank You! Thank You!