ANZ—10 November 2017

ANZ is one of New Zealand’s largest banks.  They have a strong commitment to community service and since 2013, groups of ANZ professionals have been coming to CUE Haven to plant and help with maintenance work and today a group of 8 people from the corporate banking group spent the day helping us with walking track work.

ANZ’s Corporate Banking team members have been volunteering at CUE Haven since 2013 and it was great to see old friends Bion, Kelly, Logan, Phil, Simon and Wei Lun and welcome Emma and Lucie to CUE Haven.

Over morning tea, Mahrukh gave a quick overview of the CUE Haven project for the benefit of those new to CUE Haven and an update on the latest news for the veterans.  Thomas then gave a description of the work planned for the day and a safety briefing.

The task for the day was to assist with remediating one of the oldest sections of track, which was showing its age with overgrown vegetation and wear and tear as well as some erosion.

We got to the site and the team went to work on track sections that needed to be widened. A lot of digging was required.

They also had to cut away some low hanging vegetation to clear the track.

Long sections of the track in that area have been cut into the side of a slope and to prevent erosion on the downslope side, they installed retaining walls along the track edges.

They cut the boards to size.

And carefully installed them with pegs and lots of nails.

There was a small old bridge on the track that went over a small stream.  Over the years, erosion has changed the route of the stream and the area around the bridge was eroding.  The team took a look at the situation and decided that a new bridge was the best solution!

While part of the team dug out the old bridge, a few people went down to the nursery to collect materials for a new bridge.

We found a big old shipping pallet in the nursery that could be used as the foundation for a bigger, stronger bridge and also measured up and cut the timber that would be used to construct the bridge.

We then carried the pallet and timber up to the site.

Positioning the new bridge took a lot of digging and maneuvering.

Once it was in place, the top boards were nailed on.

And then a layer of wire mesh was also nailed on so that the bridge won’t be slippery in wet weather.

The last step was to join up the retaining wall to the new bridge.

The team then carried out all of the tools and unused timber—and the old bridge–back to the nursery/workshop!

Future volunteer teams this summer will continue on improving the track and the excellent work the ANZ group did will serve as a good guide for future teams.

Before a late lunch, we drove up to the top of the property and the team decided to walk down to the cottage to explore more of the growing native bush.

It was great working with this enthusiastic and hard working group. They developed creative solutions to the track issues–everyone had great ideas and showed a lot of dedication to improving the track and the results are amazing.  The improvements will enable visitors to explore and enjoy the growing native forest safely and comfortably.

A big thank you to Bion for organising the volunteer day and for continuing to champion CUE Haven at ANZ.

And many many thanks to everyone in the hard working team for your efforts and enjoyable company.  We know the work was challenging and we really appreciate your dedication and enthusiasm. We look forward to having you back for another fun and productive day next year. But we hope before then you will come back with your families this summer for a relaxing visit and to explore the rest of the property.

Thanks Again!