JLL—22 November 2019

JLL (Jones Lang LaSalle) is one of the largest commercial property firms in New Zealand, specializing in valuation, research, property management, project development services, sales and leasing.

They provide their staff with a community volunteer day. Last year a team of JLL property valuers had come to CUE Haven and assisted with planting trees, and today a group of professionals from a variety of functional areas in the Auckland office joined us for a day of track maintenance work.

The group arrived early and included Ashleigh, Ben, Cameron, Hanna, Jacob, Joseph, Lisa, Megan, Phoebe, Sophie and Yulia.

We spent some time getting acquainted over morning tea and because most of the team was new to CUE Haven, Mahrukh then gave an overview of the CUE Haven project and our current activities and plans.

Thomas gave a safety briefing and overview of the work plan for the day.

The plan for the day was to work on a variety of improvements to two old sections of walking track.  Once in the field, we carried all the gear down to the work site and went to work.

We broke the group into two teams and each team focused on two different track challenges

One team tackled a stretch of track that needed side boards to protect against erosion.  The first challenge was to connect up with some completed steps.  They studied the track section and came up with a plan for how to widen the track and connect it to the existing track sections.

They worked down both sides of the track simultaneously, digging out channels for the side boards and installing them.

As they moved down the track and encountered curves they needed to cut the boards to size.  This required a lot of measuring and sawing.

The team made a lot of progress down the track.  Here is how it looked when they started:

And this is how it looks now!

It is a fantastic improvement and the team should be very proud of their efforts.

The other team was assigned a challenging section of track that runs along the stream.  The streamside edge of the track is prone to erosion and we asked the team to widen the track and install retaining boards along the stream side.

It was a slow process because it was necessary to take the time to determine the best way to route the track around some big trees and also it took a lot of digging.

Once they determined the track layout, it was necessary to measure for the retaining boards.

The boards were test fitted and more digging was usually required to get them into the right position.

The boards were then secured with pegs and nailed into place.

As they finished a section, they moved down the track.

It was a very challenging job with lots of hard work in a small space, but the result is a huge improvement in the track.  This is how it looked at the start of the day:

And here it is now—well done team!

Future teams will level the surface and put down a layer of gravel on the improved sections of track.

Thanks to everyone’s hard work the tracks got an amazing makeover within a few hours.  The team then packed up all the gear and took a leisurely walk back to the cottage for a well-deserved lunch.

Many thanks to Phoebe for once again organizing the JLL visit.

And a HUGE THANK YOU to everyone for all their hard work and efforts today. It was great seeing old friends and meeting new JLL people.  You have all made a major contribution to CUE Haven and your efforts will be greatly appreciated by visitors as they comfortably walk the tracks to explore the growing native forest.

We thoroughly enjoyed working with you all and we hope that you will come back to CUE Haven soon to explore more of your community native forest reserve with your family and friends. And back again next year for another productive volunteer day!

Thank You!! Thank You!!