Fleet Partners–5 December 2018

Fleet Partners NZ is a leading vehicle leasing and fleet management company based in Auckland.  Since 2014, corporate staff from the Auckland office have been doing their volunteer day at CUE Haven.

Today a small but dedicated group joined us for a fun and productive day.  The group arrived first thing in the morning and included Chris, Daniel, James, Paul, Ryan, Trevor and Vivienne.

Over morning tea, Mahrukh gave a welcome and orientation to CUE Haven for the benefit of the people who hadn’t been out before. She explained the history of the project and our plans for the future.

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

The plan for the day was to continue work on a boardwalk we have been building in the wetlands.  The job today was to work at both ends of the new section, finishing up the last bits, and  do some other track improvement tasks.

We broke the group into two teams to work simultaneously on each section.

One of the teams worked to finish off a curved track section that included some steps.  Getting the steps even and straight was a challenge and they spent some time studying the area to determine the best solution.

They came up with a plan to align the frames.

Once everything was level and straight, the top boards were installed.

They even cut small wedges to fill in all the little gaps to make a truly professional looking job!

In the meantime, the other team worked to finish off another corner.  This involved putting in a supporting frame and nailing planks on top.

They carefully measured the area to determine how long the supporting frame needed to be.

They then cut the board to size and installed it.

Once the frame was in place, the top boards were nailed in place to finish off the boardwalk!

The final boardwalk task was to put down a layer of wire mesh to make the boardwalk safe to use in all weather.

The new boardwalk section is a great addition to the CUE Haven walking track network and all of the teams who were involved in building it should be very proud.

While part of the group finished off the boardwalk mesh, the rest of the group went into the bush to work on a variety of track maintenance challenges.

An earlier group of volunteers built a railing on one side of a bridge crossing the CUE Haven stream.

We asked the Fleet Partners team to finish off the bridge by installing a similar railing on the other side.

We measured the timber that would be needed.  The first challenge the team faced was that we would need to drill holes in the posts and bridge for the bolts that hold the posts in place.  We carefully measured everything and drilled the holes in the posts down in the nursery.

We then took the timber up to the site and prepared the locations for the posts.

Once the positions were determined, the bolt holes in the bridge were drilled.

Prize for bravest volunteer goes to Chris who agreed to climb under the bridge to tighten the bolts.

Once the posts were secure, the side railings were installed.  And this is the final result.

The other track job we asked the group to work on was to install a post on a railing on another section of track.  The long end of the railing was at risk of warping and needed some support.

The team cut and drilled the support post in the nursery.

And then took it up to the track and installed it.

The tight space made it a challenge to get the bolt holes lined up so that the bolts could be tightened.

But the end result is a secure and good looking railing!

The team then decided that the wedge-shaped ends of the posts might be a hazard for future visitors and took turns cutting them down with a hand saw.

Mission accomplished!

We then packed up all the gear and drove up to the top of the property so that the new volunteers could see more of the property and the entire group could see the site for the future viewing platform.  And then headed back to the cottage for a leisurely lunch.

As always, we really enjoyed working with the Fleet Partners team.  It was great seeing old friends and meeting new ones as well and we’d like to thank Vivienne for organizing the volunteer day.

A HUGE thank you to everyone for their effort and hard work today.  You have all made a great contribution to CUE Haven and it was wonderful to see the way you developed creative solutions to the track issues–everyone had good ideas and showed a lot of dedication and the results are amazing–the track improvements will enable visitors to explore and enjoy the growing native forest safely and comfortably.

We hope to see all of you back at CUE Haven both for another fun and productive day and also for a relaxing visit with your friends and families to explore CUE Haven – your community native forest reserve.

THANK YOU!!