Rocket Lab build and launch rockets.  The science and engineering staff are located in Auckland and the company operates a launch pad facility on the Mahia Peninsula on the east coast of the North Island.  For the third year in a row, a team from Rocket Lab’s Green Team gave up a Saturday to volunteer at CUE Haven.  It was great seeing old friends and meeting new ones.

The Rocket Lab crew arrived first thing in the morning and included Bas, Fanny, Joshua, Jude, Kallista, Miriam L., Miriam S., Orsa, Paul, Pietro and, Ryan. 

Richard, who does a variety of projects at CUE Haven also joined us for the day.

Most of the team were new to CUE Haven so Mahrukh gave a talk about the history and philosophy of the project.

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

The original plan for the day was to do some autumn maintenance work on the walking tracks, but that plan changed last week when a group of cows from the neighbouring farm broke through the boundary fence and had a roam around CUE Haven.  Richard mustered the cows out and put up a temporary electric fence to prevent further incursions but we wanted to do a more permanent repair. 

As a result, we broke into two teams, one worked on the fence under Richard’s direction and the other did some trimming of vegetation hanging over the road and some track work.

Trimming and Track Work

After some good summer weather, the bush at CUE Haven is looking better than ever.  However, that also means that there is a lot of vegetation hanging over some of the roads and tracks.  The team went to work clearing one of the most heavily affected road section.

They worked their way along the road, trimming as they went.

The team cleared a long section of road which will make it much easier to move around the property.  We then switched over to a task where we could put the team’s engineering skills to work—fixing up some sections of walking track.

The first task was to carry the gear down to the work area.

Ground movement after last year’s major storms had resulted in erosion and misalignment of the top step and a retaining board at the top of a long set of steps on the main track.  The team took some time to study the situation and determine the best way to fix it.

They determined that digging out the sections that were out of alignment and replacing them would be the best approach.

They used a string line to determine the correct line of the track and dug out a section for the new board.

They removed the side board from the top step so that they could relocate the step to the correct position.

The old step was levered out and repositioned.

Future teams will build on the team’s plan for fixing the steps and carry on with additional improvements.

Fence Repair

The fence repair work was in a remote area of the property and adjacent to a wetland.  That made getting all of the gear down to the site a challenge. 

Thomas dropped the gear off at the nearest spot and Richard had previously cut a path through the vegetation to the fence line.

Richard gave a brief description of the work to be done and a safety briefing before the team went down to the site.

And the Rocket Lab Mission Team went to work!

The first challenge was to clear vegetation off the damaged section of fencing and to see what portions of the fence could be salvaged and where new posts and wires would be needed.

Once the old fence was cleared, they could do an inspection of the remaining wires and make some repairs.

In one spot there was a gap and they installed a new fence post.  They used a post hole digger to prepare the hole.

And installed the post.

And secured it in place.

They also installed a number steel waratahs to restore the framework of the fence.

The next challenge was installing new wires to replace broken and damaged wires.

Once the wires were in place, they installed battens to make the fence stock proof.

Everything was given a final tightening up.

The repaired fence is an amazing accomplishment and the team should be proud of their efforts.

And it’s definitely ready to go!

On their walk back to the cottage, the team also helped trim some overhanging vegetation on the road.

Today was a fun and very productive day and we really enjoyed working with the very enthusiastic and hard working team.

Our many thanks to Richard for joining us today and helping out with expertise, leadership and hard work.  We couldn’t have done the fence work without you!

A big thank you to Davida for organising the day and continuing to champion CUE Haven at Rocket Lab.  Sorry you couldn’t join us today but we hope to see you again soon.

And many many thanks to everyone for giving up your Saturday and working so hard.  We enjoyed spending time with you all and working with you and we so appreciate your help.  You accomplished a lot and have made a major contribution to CUE Haven. Thanks to your efforts the boundary fence section is secure from bovine incursions and the tracks are looking better than ever.  

We look forward to seeing all of you again soon for a relaxing visit to explore more of CUE Haven and also for another fun and productive volunteer day.

THANK YOU!! THANK YOU!!