Orewa College—6 November 2018

The international exchange program at Orewa College north of Auckland provides students from overseas with an opportunity to experience New Zealand culture and natural heritage.  In addition to regular course work, the students can participate in a New Zealand Experience class where they do outdoor activities, take trips and learn more about New Zealand.

For the last five years, international students from Orewa College have come to CUE Haven to help out and also learn a little about New Zealand plants and animals.

Today’s group included students from Chile and Italy and joining us were Camila, Catalina, Giulia and Ivette.  Teacher Cecelia Tyne led the group and she was assisted by Trixie Croad, a Health Promotion Sociologist who has previously volunteered at CUE Haven.

We spent some time getting acquainted over morning tea and then Mahrukh gave an overview of the CUE Haven project.

Thomas then gave a description of the work planned for the day and a safety briefing.

We had a warm, wet winter and an unusually wet spring which means that everything is growing—good stuff and weeds!  We asked the students to trim back vegetation that was growing over the main walking track.  We drove up to the top of the property–

–and walked down the track, trimming as we went.

The walk also gave the students a chance to learn a little bit about native New Zealand plants and animals and some of the challenges of restoration planting.  They even got to meet a weta close up!  It was a perfect spring day and they also took the opportunity to relax and enjoy the bush.

In just a couple of hours the hard working group managed to prune the entire main walking track.

When the trimming was finished, we had a relaxing lunch.  Over lunch we had a nice discussion about sustainability, volunteering and social awareness.

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

We want to thank Adrienne Croad, Director of International Students at Orewa College, for her continued support and continuing to champion CUE Haven at the college.

A big thank you to Cecelia for organising the trip out and Trixie for helping out.  It was great seeing you both again and we really appreciate all your hard work and help.

And a special thanks to all the students for all their hard work today.  We appreciate your efforts and hope you enjoyed the day.  We enjoyed working with you—you all made a great contribution to our efforts and helped us get CUE Haven ready for the summer season when we will have a lot of visitors who will walk along the tracks you helped clean up and beautify—Thanks!

We hope you have a great stay in New Zealand and wish you much happiness and success in your studies and all your endeavours.   And we hope that someday you will come back to New Zealand and visit CUE Haven too!!

Thanks Again!!