Air New Zealand Social Media Team–4 November 2022

Air New Zealand staff have been volunteering at CUE Haven for many years and today a small but hard working team from the social media group spent a day at CUE Haven helping out with some maintenance tasks.

The team included Dana, Maria, Ramin and Sam.  Also joining us was our friend and neighbour Heron.

Most of the Air New Zealand team were new to CUE Haven so we spent some time getting acquainted over morning tea and then Mahrukh gave an overview of the project and described the current activities and future plans.

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

The first task was to do some weeding of the landscaping around the viewing platform. As a result of the wet weather and longer days, a variety of weeds had popped up and we wanted to clear them out before they got too established.

We drove up to the platform and went to work.

It was hard work in the hot sun and on the sloping ground, but the team managed to clear up all the weeds very quickly.

The landscaping looks great after all the weeding! Thanks team!!

We then moved on to the next task, which was to do some track improvement work.

The first the team had to carry down all the gear.

We have been improving an old section of track by installing side boards.  Previous teams had finished off a section up to a bend in the track, and today’s team continued the improvements from that point.  The job required them to determine the best routing for the track and how to build the curve while keeping the track sides even and parallel.

They spent some time studying the track and measured the angles.  They discussed alternative approaches and figured out the design they wanted to use. 

Once they determined where they wanted the corner to curve, they pounded in pegs as a guide.

They installed string lines as a guide and dug out channels for the side boards. 

The job entailed a lot of digging.

When one side of the corner had been dug out, it was time to install the first side board.  The section was measured.

And the timber was cut to size.

The board was fitted in place and then secured with pegs and nails.

It was hard work on a hot humid day and once the section was finished, the team brought down all the gear and we had a nice relaxing lunch. Future volunteer teams will continue the upgrades along this track.

Many thanks Maria for organising yet another fun and productive volunteer day.  We so appreciate your continued support.

And a special thank you to Heron for taking time from her busy schedule to come help us out.  It means a lot! Thanks.

Huge thank you to everyone who came out today!  We very much appreciate all your hard work and efforts and amazing contribution to CUE Haven. We hope you enjoyed the day as much as we did and we very much look forward to having you out again for another fun and productive 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 on a clear day so you can also enjoy the views of Kaipara Moana and the growing ngahere at CUE Haven.

Thank You!! Thank You!!