Orewa & Whangaparaoa College International Students—21 November 2022

For the last seven years, international students from Orewa College have come to CUE Haven to help out and also learn a little about New Zealand plants and animals.  Today we were very happy to have another group from Orewa College and they were joined by a group from Whangaparaoa College.  This was the first time students from Whangaparaoa visited CUE Haven.

Today’s group included students from Denmark, Germany, Italy, Norway and Thailand.

Joining us were students Elias, Grace, Julian, Lucas, Kena, Matteo, Till and Ulla .  They were accompanied by teachers Sally Giller and Matthew Harris.

We spent some time getting acquainted over morning tea and then Mahrukh gave an overview of the CUE Haven project.

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

We broke into two teams to tackle two different maintenance tasks.  One team would work on trimming vegetation that had grown over the one of the roads and the other would work on repairing damage to the main race that occurred due to recent heavy rain. 

We drove up to the top of the property and Thomas gave a brief explanation and demo for the trimming work.  The trimming team then went off with Matt and worked their way down the road.

The other team worked on fixing some washouts on the main race.  Some of the drains and culverts were blocked during the heavy rain and as a result water flowed onto the road surface and cut channels in the metal. 

It was a challenging job because they first had to study each washout to determine the cause, dig out any gravel that had been washed into culverts and drains and then rake gravel back onto the road.  Each washout was a bit different as far as cause and each one required a little different approach. And a lot of digging!

The team  made a huge amount of progress and repaired a long section of road.  As a result the road is less bumpy and more weatherproof.   Water is now flowing in the drain and not on the road!

Both teams worked from the top to the bottom of the property and once everyone was back at the cottage, the students had a relaxing lunch before heading back to school.

We want to thank Adrienne Croad of Orewa College for organizing the visit and continuing to champion CUE Haven at Orewa College.  And a big thank you to Matt and Sally for all your help and hard work today.  It was great meeting you both.

And a special thanks to all the students for all their hard work today.  We appreciate your efforts and hope you enjoyed the day.  You made a great contribution to our maintenance work.  Visitors will definitely appreciate  your efforts to clean up and beautify the walking tracks and roads—Thanks!

We hope you have a great stay in New Zealand and wish you much happiness and success in your studies and all your endeavours.   And we hope that someday you will come back to New Zealand and visit CUE Haven too!!

Thank You!!