ANZ–September 2020

After two sets of Covid restrictions, our friends from ANZ were finally able to join us for their long delayed volunteer day.  This team was made up of executives from the West Auckland Business Banking groups and a Mobile Mortgage Manager.

The team arrived bright and early and included Allan, Grace, Hamish, Justeel, Min, Nary, Richard and Sandy.  Most of the team members 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 Mahrukh updated the team on current activities and future plans.

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

The plan for the day was to continue to work on upgrading the walking track near the top of the property.  We split the group into two teams one team worked with Thomas and the other worked with Alan.

We drove up to the site and went to work.

Alan’s team worked on a section of track that hasn’t been used much but with the completion of the viewing platform will become a more frequently used route to the top of the property.  As a result, we wanted to improve the track by widening it and putting in side boards.

The first task was to carry the timber and tools down to the work site.

The track was well formed and fairly straight so the team was able to lay in the long boards and determine the line and contours of the track.

Some digging was required to create channels to place the boards in.

The boards were pegged and nailed into place.

Getting the boards lined up and nailed in place took a lot of teamwork.

They continued up the track, making a lot of progress.

Have a look at what they accomplished!

Future teams will pick up where this team left off to carry on and finish off the track section.

Thomas’s team first started out by helping us clear some scrap timber from the viewing platform site.  The digger man was going to be delivering a load of scoria for the retaining wall by the road and the area needed to be accessible.  It only took a few minutes for the team to load up the ute.

We unloaded the timber in the shed and on the way up to the work site we dropped off some more timber for Alan’s team.

Once we got to the site, the first task was bring the timber and gear down to the track.

This team had the challenging task of routing their track section between some trees to join up two complete sections of track.  The route had a lot of curves and the job required some pre-planning.

They used string to mark out the track route and edges.

Once the routing was determined, they could dig out channels for the side boards.

They measured to determine how long to cut the boards.

The boards were secured with pegs and nails.

They moved down the track, bringing down more timber.

In spite of the challenges, the team made good progress.

And finally joined up with the older track section!

It was past lunch time but we were keen to get this track was completed by putting down a layer of gravel to make it suitable for all weather use. So Alan’s team was roped in to help out.

We packed up the gear we wouldn’t need and they took in back to the shed.

And then loaded up buckets of gravel down in the car park.

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

And here is the result of all the hard work!

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.

Many thanks to Linda and Tyerell for organising the day and helping the visit to happen.  We look forward to seeing you both at CUE Haven soon!

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.

As always, we so enjoyed working with you all and we hope you enjoyed the day as much as we did.  And we very much appreciate all your hard work and amazing contribution to CUE Haven.

We 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!!