Orewa College—5 November 2019

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 six 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 Argentina, Cambodia, Denmark, Finland, Germany, Japan and Switzerland.  It was the first time we’ve had volunteers from Cambodia, Denmark and Finland.

Joining us were students Alicia, Anna, Chiharu, Eugenia, Hannah, Kazuki, Kira, Lukas, Moritz, Pauline, Simon, Sokomony, Stacie and Yuki.  They were accompanied by teachers Cecilia Tyne and International Students Director, Adrienne Croad.

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!  So the task for the day was for the students to trim back vegetation that was growing over the main road to enable clear passage for traffic over the summer months.

Before we got started, Thomas gave a brief explanation and demo for the trimming work.

We then broke the group into two teams.  Adrienne led one team and started at the gate, trimming the flaxes that were growing out over the road.

In the meantime, Thomas drove the second group up to the top of the property and they worked their way down the road.

The two groups met near the middle and turned down one of the walking tracks to continue the trimming work.

In just a couple of hours the hard working group managed to prune the entire main race as well as a long section of walking track.

When the trimming was finished, it was back to the cottage for a relaxing lunch.

We were very happy that four of the students, Chiharu, Eugenia, Kazuki and Yuki, who had been out to CUE Haven with Orewa College earlier in April, came back to volunteer again today. Thanks!! It was great seeing you again and having you back.

Our thanks to Adrienne and Cecilia for organizing the visit and continuing to champion CUE Haven at Orewa College.  And also a big thank you for all your help and hard work today.  It was great seeing you both again and we really appreciate continued support.

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!!

Thank You!!