Teams from Westpac bank have been volunteering at CUE Haven for several years and today we were very happy to have a combined group from Enterprise Services, Learning Talent & Culture and the Analytics & Insights departments out to help us with plant trees.

The group arrived first thing in the morning and included staff members Anthea, Atul, Bruno, Christin, Cintia, Grant, Harini, Inge, Lance, Lucy, Mark, Max, Rachel, Ruth, Sam, Sandra and Yohan.  Also joining the group were Anna and Cady, daughters of two of the staff members.

Because almost everyone in the group was new to CUE Haven, we took some time to get acquainted over morning tea.  Mahrukh gave an introduction to the CUE Haven project and the plans for the future.

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

The plan was to plant pioneer trees in an area in one of the bush covenants on the property.  Although there were several big stands of massive kahikatea, totara and taraire trees, there were also some large open spaces that had been covered with kikuyu grass which was preventing natural regeneration from taking place.  In late summer, we prepared the area for planting by spraying out the kikuyu and volunteers from Halter helped construct a safe track down to the main planting site.

We drove up in two groups and Thomas repeated the safety briefing and gave a planting demonstration. 

The first task was to carry the plants down to the site.

The planting area consisted of several large pockets of open space amongst mature bush.  The group broke into smaller teams and spread out to the different areas.

It was challenging planting because of the heavy cover of dead kikuyu but everyone kept smiling.

Some of the planting areas were a bit steep and slippery but that didn’t slow down the teams.

They also made friends with some of the local natives too.

As the teams worked, the open spaces were gradually filled in.

While some people worked individually, some worked in teams of two with one person digging and the other planting.

The hard working team got through so many plants that Thomas had to go down to the nursery and get some more.

In just a few hours, the team managed to plant all of the prepared areas.  When we were finished, we gathered up all of the spades and empty trays to take back down.

Because we were working at the top of the reserve, the group then took a leisurely walk back down to the cottage and had a chance to see more of the CUE Haven reserve.

Once back at the nursery, the team cleaned up and we had a relaxing lunch.

The team accomplished an amazing amount of planting in challenging conditions.  Thank you so very very much!

Many thanks to Inge and Atul for organising the volunteer day.

And huge thanks to everyone for choosing CUE Haven for your volunteer day and for all your hard work and efforts.  We really enjoyed meeting everyone and all the interesting conversations. And 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 do look forward to 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!!