Today our good friends from the Westpac corporate human resources group spent a day at CUE Haven doing some winter planting.  The team arrived first thing in the morning and included Afiafi, Andrea, Andrew, Anthea, Inge and Max.  Also joining us were Inge’s daughter Cady and our friend and environmentalist, Will.

We spent some time catching up over morning tea and then Mahrukh gave an overview of the CUE Haven project and our plans for the future for the benefit of team members who were new to CUE Haven.

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

The plan for the day was to do some planting at the top of the property to stabilize a bank near the viewing platform.  The bank was prone to erosion and the plantings will also greatly improve the appearance of the area.  Will is an avid conservationist and generously gifted us sixty canopy trees that the team also planted as infill planting.

We drove up to the work site where Thomas did a brief planting demonstration and the team then went to work.  After almost a week of nonstop wind and rain, it was nice to be out on a calm sunny day.

The team finished off the bank and also some areas around the walking track next to the viewing platform.

Thomas and Will took Will’s plants up to the planting site.

And the team filled in an area next to the main race with some of landscaping plants.

Will’s plants, which included nikau, puriri, rewarewa, taraire, titoki and totara are long lived trees which will form part of the future forest canopy at CUE  Haven.  Because they will grow to be huge trees, they have to be planted far apart in light wells in the existing bush. 

The team spent time finding suitable sites for the planting.

By lunchtime the team managed to plant all of the trees we had for them and made a major contribution to the CUE Haven landscape.  We really enjoyed working with the team and it was great seeing the collegiality and teamwork.

We then headed back to the cottage for a relaxing lunch.

Many thanks to Afi for organising the volunteer team and continuing to champion CUE Haven at Westpac.  And a huge thank you to our friend Will for providing the plants and expertise in planting them.

A BIG thank you to everyone who came out today!  We very much appreciate your hard work and amazing contribution to CUE Haven. We hope you enjoyed the day as much as we did and look forward to your continued support and 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!!