Overseas Chinese Association of New Zealand—4 July 2020

Since 2014, our good friends from the NZ Chapter of the Overseas Chinese Association have been coming to CUE Haven to help us out with planting and maintenance work.  The visits have historically been timed to coincide with their annual Dragon Boat Festival and the visit has become one of the highlights of the CUE Haven calendar.

This year, due to the Covid situation, we have decided to defer most of the planting to next year, so the group decided to come out for just a social visit and have a communal picnic and also go for a walk to check out the progress on the viewing platform.  Today about forty members and their families joined us.

Mahrukh and Thomas welcomed the group and talked a little about developments at CUE Haven since the groups’ last visit.  Thomas also gave a safety briefing for the walk.

Adonis Yang, OCA president, also gave a welcome.

Thomas then led the group on a walk from the cottage to the top of the property and back.

The group got to see many different areas of the CUE Haven bush and Thomas explained different aspects of native New Zealand plants and animals.

It was a good winter day with no rain and no winds, so walking uphill was not too challenging.

Everyone made it to the top!

The group enjoyed views of the Kaipara Harbour and CUE Haven bush and also got a chance to see the progress on the viewing platform under construction at the top of the property.

We then walked back down for lunch!

As always, we had a fantastic day with everyone and we were very happy to have been able to meet up with old friends and make new friends.

A very big thank to OCA President, Adonis for organising the visit and to everyone who came along and brought food to share.  We really value your friendship and continued support of CUE Haven and many thanks too for also contributing to our fundraising efforts. Looking forward to having you visit again soon.