ANZ North Auckland Business Banking—14 October 2020

Today a group of veteran CUE Haven volunteers from ANZ accomplished an amazing amount of work while enjoying a fantastic spring day outdoors.

This team was originally scheduled to come out in March but had to cancel because of the Covid lockdown and were finally able to reschedule to today.  The group arrived bright and early and included Alan, Alison, Ashleigh, Becky, Ben, Dennis, Ella, Jennifer, Kelly, Linda, Maryanne and Sam.  Also joining us for the day was our good friend and regular volunteer Alan.

All of today’s volunteers had been out to CUE Haven on several occasions so we spent morning tea catching up and Mahrukh gave the group a quick update.

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

The plan for the day was to continue to work on fixing up the walking track approaches to the viewing platform area.  We drove up to the site and went to work.  Once on site, Thomas showed the group the work to be done and they then split into three teams to tackle the separate projects.  One team worked to repair a section of walking track that had been damaged during the platform construction, another team built a short track from the main walking track to what will be a seating area around the platform and the third team built a track connecting the main walking track to another section of track.  This new track will allow visitors more direct access to the platform area.

Fixing Damaged Track

During the construction of the viewing platform it was necessary to drive heavy equipment over the track which resulted in damage to some of the side boards and also affected the alignment of the track.  One team went to work repairing and realigning the track.

The job required a lot of digging to replace and shift steps and side boards.  The first task was to determine the correct alignment for the track.

They then went to work digging out the damaged and misaligned sections.

Pulling out some of the old step boards was a bit of a challenge.

New steps were installed.

And channels for the side boards were dug out.

And the side boards were re-installed.

When one side was finished the team moved over to the other side.

The end result is an amazing improvement.

New Connecting Track and Old Track Realignment

We are planning to install some seating in the area in front of the viewing platform and wanted to build a short track to connect that area with the main walking track to make it easy for visitors to access the area.  One team went to work digging out the new track.

The first task was to determine the best placement for the track, taking into consideration the slope and terrain.  Once they determined the best route, they went to work digging out channels for the side boards.

They checked the planned layout with a test board.

Once they were happy with the layout, the boards were cut to size.

The side boards were installed and nailed and pegged into place and then the track was levelled off.

They decided that there was too much of a slope down from the seating area to the track so they installed a small step.

The step board was nailed in place.

And the result of all their hard work is a good looking easy to use track.

Once they finished the new track, the hard working team moved down to fix up another section of track that had been damaged during the platform construction.  The plan was to relocate the side boards to the new edge of the slope and widen the track.

They spent some time determining the best way to join the widened track to the existing track and came up with a good looking solution.  First they determined where to make the junction.

Then they dug out and levelled the ground and installed a new side board.

They then continued down the track, aligning and reinstalling the side boards.

In the meantime, the team working to fix the top part of the walking track finished their work and came down to join this team and worked on the other end of the section, joining up the track section to a new set of steps down from the platform area.

The end result is a vast improvement in access to the area. Future teams will finish off the work on this section of the track.

New Connecting Track and Bridge

We wanted to join up the main walking track up to the platform with another small track which will provide visitors with a shorter alternative access to the platform area.  The route through the bush had been previously marked out and sprayed and the first task today was to clear the grass and weeds to create the track.  The job involved a lot of trimming and digging.

The team encountered a ditch that their track would have to cross and they decided that the best solution would be an elegant bridge.

They found some sleepers to use as the foundation and brought them down to the site.

They then determined the correct distances and slope and dug them into the ground and secured them with stakes.

They double checked the alignment and slope to make sure everything was level.

And measured to determine the optimal width of the top boards.

We then measured and cut the top boards and brought them down to the site.

And went to work nailing the boards in place.  While one person nailed the rest of the team checked the spacing and alignment.

The bridge is an amazing accomplishment.

Future teams will finish off the track with side boards and join it up to the existing track on the other side of the bridge.

Metalling

The entire group got together at the end of the day to spread a layer of gravel on some of the newly completed track sections to finish them off and make them easy to use in all weather. We went down to the car park and filled buckets with gravel.

We then drove up to the work site and the gravel was spread on the track sections.

The teams accomplished an amazing amount of work in a few hours and made some major improvements.

A massive THANK YOU to everyone who came along today and a special thank you to Linda for organising the visit and Allan for continuing to champion CUE Haven at ANZ.  And also special thanks to our dear friend Alan for joining the team for the day. We really enjoyed seeing you all again and spending time together and we very much appreciate all your good ideas and hard work.  Everyone’s efforts have made a major contribution to the CUE Haven landscape and set a high standard for other teams to follow to complete the task.

We look forward to having you all back this summer with your family and friends for a relaxing visit and back again next year for another fun and productive volunteer day.

Thank You!! Thank You!!