Auckland Council Healthy Waters Team—14 July 2017

Over the years, Auckland Council has been one of the biggest supporters of the restoration and educational activities at CUE Haven and today a fantastic team of urban and rural water quality professionals joined us for a wet but very productive and fun planting day on one of the coldest days of this season.

The group arrived at nine and included Elin, Jennifer, Kayla, Libby, Nicci, Rhianna, Susan and Vivien from Healthy Waters.  Also joining the group was Hazel from the Sustainable Schools Waicare group.  As you would expect from water care professionals, they were well equipped for the wet weather!

Over morning tea, Mahrukh updated the team on the current developments at CUE Haven and Thomas gave a description of the work planned for the day and a field safety briefing.

The plan for the day was plant in several areas around the property that needed some additional work.   We drove up to as close as we could to the planting site after a ute safety briefing.

One of the challenges of today’s planting was that the work involved small amounts of planting in remote areas.  So the first thing we needed to do was carry the plants out to the locations.

The team then went to work.

One of the areas we worked on was an isolated area that had become overgrown by kikuyu grass.  We had previously sprayed the area and it was ready for planting, but the team still had to contend with the dead grass and thick roots.

And it wasn’t long before we could declare victory over the kikuyu.

We then moved on to fill in other areas.  The weather had been threatening all morning and we had to cope with on and off showers, but fortunately the group was well prepared.

The team got to see lots of different parts of the property as they filled in an area and moved on to the next.

The group were so efficient, we had to bring up more plants and we did some additional wetland planting along the stream.

We then asked the team to undertake a very special project.  The kakabeak is an endangered native plant that has big, beautiful red flowers that resemble the beak of the kaka and we have a couple of kakabeak trees growing at CUE Haven.

Last year, artist Deborah Moss gifted CUE Haven her beautiful art work showcasing the kakabeak.  We installed the sculpture in an open area not too far from the entrance to the property.  The area will be used for group picnics and as an outdoor classroom and it has been our hope to plant the area with more kakabeak plants.

Over the past year, we have nurtured over forty kakabeak seedlings in the nursery and requested the team to plant them today.  The plants will require additional care because they are very susceptible to snail browsing, but the area will someday be ringed with beautiful kakabeak flowers in late winter.

When we finished all the planting, the team helped bring up all the empty trays and pots.

We then took a drive up to explore more of the property – and that’s when the heavy rain set in.

But in spite of the rain, we took a leisurely walk back to the cottage.

After the walk, we had a relaxing and well deserved lunch to end a very productive day.

We want to thank Auckland Council for their most valued support to CUE Haven over the years.  Today was another example of some of the great things we are accomplishing together.

Many thanks to Jenn for organising the volunteer day.

And a BIG thank you to the very hard working team.  We enjoyed working with you and really appreciated your energy and enthusiasm in challenging conditions.  Thank you for selecting CUE Haven as your volunteer site and we look forward to having you back for another great day.  The trees you have planted will add to the growing native forest – what a fantastic contribution you’ve made to our environment and community!

Thank You!! Thank You!!