Air New Zealand Greenteam Enviro Hunt—5 November 2017

The Air New Zealand Greenteam is a group of Air New Zealand employees who assist environmental projects all over the country on their own time.  For the past three years, the amazing Greenteam and some of their family members have helped out at CUE Haven by planting trees.

The Greenteam members and their families were back out to CUE Haven today not to work, but for a fun and relaxing spring BBQ picnic and an “enviro hunt.”  We held a similar event last year to give the Green Team members a chance to enjoy the bush without having to work and it was so much fun, that they event was repeated this year.

The enviro hunt was an opportunity for people to enjoy a walk in the native bush while also testing their knowledge of New Zealand plant and animal life.  The challenge was to find picture cards of New Zealand plants, birds, insects, mammals and fish which were hidden along the walking track and then to correctly identify them.

Shelley Crawford, Air NZ Community Engagement executive and Greenteam coordinator who organised the event, arrived at eight in the morning with Greenteam members Dayarnn, Ellese, Eva, James, Josh and Kingsley to get everything organized.

The first task was to set out the picture cards at various points along the walking tracks.

A ribbon was tied to a nearby branch to indicate that two cards had been hidden in the area.

Once all 60 cards had been hidden, we set up the morning tea and waited for the guests to arrive.

The group of 76 arrived shortly after ten and included Greenteam members and their families and friends.

The group had light refreshments and Shelley then described the programme for the hunt and gave a safety briefing.

The weather forecast had been for cloudy skies and showers but it turned out to be sunny spring day so we made sure everyone had hats and sunblock.

The group had already broken into teams, and the teams were sent out at two minute intervals along two different routes.

Each team had a chart with the numbers of the sixty cards in the field.  There were blanks to fill in their answers.  The challenge was first to find the cards hidden along the track and then to correctly identify the creature or plant in the picture.  The team had to write their answer on their chart. They got 1 point for each correct answer and additional points for correctly including the scientific name and the Maori name of the plant or animal. Additionally the teams had to identify 7 native canopy plants that had been potted up in the nursery.

The winning team would be the ones who identified most cards and the little canopy plants in the least amount of time.

The teams headed out and explored the property as they hunted for the cards and identified them.  It was a fun day with friends and families cooperating to find the cards and identify them. Ellese, Eva, James, Kingsley and Thomas stayed in the field to answer questions and make sure teams stayed on the right track.

Each team was encouraged to take a short break and relax for two minutes to enjoy the sights, sounds and scents of the bush!

And after the short silence they were back searching for cards.

While the teams were busy in the field, Dayarnn, Josh, Mahrukh and Shelley got lunch organized and when the last of the teams returned we all had a nice barbecue lunch.

During lunch Shelley checked the teams’ worksheets for accuracy, and the results were announced!

The top three teams each received nice prizes and there were some other prizes, and of course lollies for everyone.

It was a fun day of exploring, exercise and learning and the Greenteam members got a chance to enjoy the growing native forest at CUE Haven and in addition to the cards, got to see some native New Zealand plants and animals up close.

Our many thanks to Shelley for all of her hard work organising a very successful family day out.  Shelley, we really appreciate your continued support of CUE Haven.

Also a big thank you to Dayarnn, Ellese, Eva, James, Josh, Kingsley and Shelley who did a fantastic job of making sure everyone had a great time and we look forward to more fun times with the Air NZ Greenteam.

And a big thank you to all the wonderful Air New Zealand Greenteam members and their families who joined us today.  It was wonderful seeing old friends and welcoming new people and we look forward to seeing all of you again soon.