The Knapman-Smith family have made many wonderful contributions to CUE Haven over the years.  They established Lisa’s Wish Grove and continue to help maintain it and in 2021 made and installed beautiful carved timber signs for the roads, groves and walking tracks.

Over the festive season, Neil, Rosemarie, Jennifer, Ian, Cort, Nikita and Amoré spent a few days at CUE Haven celebrating the holidays, relaxing and also working.

For their first task, they went to work with loppers and shears and cleared vegetation from the tracks.  They started at the boardwalk in Lisa’s Wish Grove and continued up the tracks.

Rosemarie had injured her leg but discovered that her crutches were a good boardwalk clearing tool!

Neil and Jennifer took advantage of a convenient bench to relax and enjoy the bush.

As they worked on the trimming work, they found a section of track that had been damaged in a recent storm.

They decided to fix the problem and after studying the situation, decided that the best approach would be to dig out the area outside the retaining board, refill it with clay and add additional retaining boards to hold the new clay in place.

They added reinforcing side boards, secured the new boards with pegs and nailed everything in place.

They finished off the repaired section by putting down a layer of gravel.  It was a bit of a challenge getting the gravel down to the track site.

And the end result of all the hard work is that the track is safer and looking better than ever!

In addition to all their hard work, the family spent time exploring the CUE Haven bush and relaxing.  They headed up to Te Rite o Taranaki and enjoyed a dramatic sunset.

And all that was accomplished on just the first day!!  The next day, Ian continued walking more of the CUE Haven tracks and roads, clearing away overgrown foliage, fallen branches and weeds. Thanks

A huge thank you to Rosemarie and Ian for organising and coordinating the visit and to Ian and the family for all their hard work.  We really appreciate your many generous contributions to CUE Haven over the years and your continued support.  We very much look forward to having you back to CUE Haven again soon.

Thank You!! Thank You!!