Rotarians & Lions—23 April 2022

We were really happy when Kristy of the Rotary Club of Orewa-Millwater got in touch about volunteering at CUE Haven.  Because of the disruptions in our volunteer schedule caused by Covid restrictions, we are still catching up on a lot of maintenance work so another group of volunteers was just what we needed!

The group arrived first thing in the morning and included Cath, Karen, Kristy, Suman and Vern.  Also joining the Rotarians were Martin of the Orewa Lions Club, and Tyler, a student of Cath’s at Orewa College. 

Lauren, who is doing her Bachelor of Environmental Science practicum at CUE Haven, was also on site working for the day.

Everyone except Lauren and Vern were visiting CUE Haven for the first time, so we spent some time getting acquainted over morning tea. Mahrukh gave a short talk on the history and philosophy of the CUE Haven project.

Thomas then gave a safety briefing and an explanation of the work planned for the day.

The plan for the day was to trim vegetation that had grown over the walking tracks and roads.  

We drove up to the top of the property and worked our way down.

It was a perfect autumn day and the team made really good progress.

After a couple hours of trimming, we decided to change things up and asked the team to help us install the last of the inspirational signs that Rosemarie had done.  We had a general idea of where we wanted the signs to go, but because the signs have both a literal and philosophical meaning, we all worked as a team to figure out the best locations so the signs would fit in well with their surroundings. 

Because most of these signs were big and heavy, a lot of digging was required.

Once the hole was deep enough, the sign was secured in place and checked.

We then moved on to the next sign, agreed on where to place it and fixed it in place.

The last sign was installed in the wetlands by a grove of the majestic kahikatea trees which had been planted as memorial plantings.

As a final task, the team helped us move some benches from the nursery out to one of the picnic areas.

The team helped put away the gear and straightened up the nursery before heading inside for a relaxing lunch.

Today was another excellent volunteer day.  We got a lot of work done and had a fantastic time. 

Thanks very much to Lauren for all her hard work and helping out on her day off.

A big thank you to Kristy for organising the day. And a huge thank you to the hard working team.  We really enjoyed meeting you all and getting to know you and we hope you enjoyed the day as much as we did.  We really appreciate your support and service to the CUE Haven community reserve and very much look forward to having you all back again soon for a leisurely visit and another fun and productive volunteer day.

Thank You!! Thank You!!