ANZ Business Banking North and West and MMM Executives—11 March 2020

Today another hard working team from ANZ joined us to continue to improve the walking tracks at CUE Haven and to help us out with some other tasks as well.  This group was made up of executives from the North and West Business Banking groups and the Mobile Mortgage Managers.

The enthusiastic group arrived bright and early and included Brendon, Bryan, Daniel, Dasmeet, Dennis, Devam, Jingjing, Kim, Lily, Linda, Mike, Miki, Nathan, Shravan and Vicki.  Many of the team had been out to CUE Haven in previous years and it was great seeing old friends and welcoming new people.  Also joining us for the day to help out was our good friend, Alan.

We spent some time catching up over morning tea and then Mahrukh gave an overview of the project for those new to CUE Haven and updated the group on current activities and future plans.

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

The primary plan for the day was to continue to work on upgrading a section of walking track.  However, we are also currently working on the viewing platform project.  Dulux NZ have very generously donated the paint and materials for painting the cladding boards.  Most of the boards have been painted by Dulux staff and community volunteers, but we still had a few boards that needed to be painted, and we asked for volunteers to help us out to finish up the painting. Four ANZ staff volunteered to paint and the rest worked with Thomas and Alan on the walking track.

The painting group stayed down in the nursery where we had set up the boards for painting.   The first step was to make more room for the painters by taking up some of the already painted boards up to the viewing platform site.

In the nursery, the painters got to work.  Each 1.5 m board required three coats of paint.  The team worked out a system and got all of the boards painted—a fantastic accomplishment.

While waiting for the coats to dry, the team went up and did some trimming to open up a proposed picnic seating area where the view was being obscured by trees.

It was a good break from painting but at one point we got very wet thanks to a welcome rain shower.

The trimming has opened up some nice views from the picnic area.

In the meantime, most of the group was working on the walking track.

We drove up to the work site and went to work.  It was a bit of a hike from the road to where we would be working and the first task was to bring down all the gear.

Once on site, we broke into three teams, but throughout the day people moved among teams as the work required. One team worked to level an old section of track that had some uneven steps.

Another team worked on a challenging corner that needed both a step and a retaining wall.  They studied the situation and came up with an excellent solution.

The others worked to install side boards along the track to make it easier to follow and maintain.  That team had to study the track to determine the best route and then dig channels for the side boards.

The job required a lot of digging and with the dry weather, the ground was very hard.

The boards were then positioned in the channels and checked for proper alignment.

Once the boards were in place, they were secured with pegs and nails.  The team took turns with the pounding and hammering.

In just a few hours the teams made major progress moving down the track and greatly improved its appearance.  They devised some good solutions to the challenges they encountered and should be proud of their efforts!

The team then spread some gravel on a section of track.  We cover all of the tracks with a layer of gravel to make them easier to use in all weather.

We loaded up buckets of gravel down in the car park.

We then drove as close to the site as we could and from there, the buckets were carried to the track where they were dumped and the gravel raked in.

The team accomplished a huge amount of work, exceeding our expectations for the day.  They made major improvements to the track and should be very proud of their efforts.

Once we were finished, the group brought down all the gear, cleaned up and had a relaxing lunch.

As always, we really enjoyed working with the ANZ team.  It’s great seeing the collegiality and teamwork amongst the group and they worked hard and showed a lot of creativity and energy in coming up with solutions, whether it was a track question or a system for painting the boards.

Many thanks to Linda, the North Shore Business Banking Regional Administrator for making the arrangements for the day.

And we want to thank our friend Alan for all his hard work and continued help and support.  Alan – we really appreciate you taking the time to help out—your expertise and advice have added a lot of value.

A BIG thank you to everyone who came out today!  We very much appreciate your hard work and amazing contribution to CUE Haven. We really enjoyed working with you all and we hope you enjoyed the day as much as we did and look forward to having you out again for another fun and productive volunteer day.

And we also look forward to having you out with your friends and family for a leisurely visit soon to explore more of your community native forest reserve.

Thank You!! Thank You!!