We were delighted to once again have students and staff from Westlake Boys High School out for a volunteer day at CUE Haven.

As part of their end of term activities, the Year 9 and 10 students who are part of the Enviro group were given the opportunity to be involved in a variety of environmental activities. Eleven students chose to come to CUE Haven and we were especially happy that several of the students who had come last year as Year 9 students came again today as Year 10 students.

The group arrived at ten and included students Amihr, Arshiyaan, Divit, Ethan, Izaak, JJ, Jimmy, Mark, Michael, Siwon and Terrence. The students were accompanied by teachers Amy Bennett, Kelly Easton and Keryn McAlpine.  Also joining us for the day were our very good friend and regular volunteer Alan and his granddaughter Emily who is visiting from the UK.

Mahrukh had the students each introduce themselves and then gave a brief introduction to CUE Haven for the benefit of the new students.

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

The plan for the day was to work on trimming vegetation that had grown over the walking tracks and roads after a wet spring.

We first went up to Te Rite o Taranaki so that the students could get a look at the growing CUE Haven ngahere, Kaipara Moana and surrounding area.

The group then broke into two teams.  Four of the students and Emily worked with Kelly and Keryn to trim along the walking tracks leading down from the viewing platform.

They slowly worked down the track, trimming and clearing off the track.

While working away, the team got a chance to see nature up close.  In addition to hearing and seeing birds in the bush, they also saw a bird nest with little chicks in the hut.

And they made friends with a stick insect.

Meanwhile, Amy took the other students to work on clearing some of the access roads near the top of the property.

One of the challenges the team faced was clearing muehlenbeckia australis that was growing over trees in some areas.  The meulenbeckia is a native vine that grows up along the edges of regenerating forests and unless it is controlled, it will completely cover and kill small trees.

The enthusiastic team wasn’t afraid to get into the bush to find the source of the vines.

While the students worked in the field, Alan tackled a series of maintenance projects around the shed and cottage.

He relocated the latch on the new garden shed to make it more secure.

And repaired a broken rake.

Some tiles along the bottom of the cottage had come loose as ants had built a nest behind the tiles. Alan cleared the nest and reglued and replaced the tiles.

Now that visitors can access CUE Haven at any time without prior appointment, we have installed security cameras at various places.  Alan installed additional security cameras today.

Shortly after 1 pm everyone headed back to the cottage for a relaxing lunch.

Our many thanks to Amy for organizing the very productive day and continuing to champion CUE Haven at Westlake Boys High School and also helping out today. Also, many thanks to Kelly and Keryn for once again coming along and helping out.

Also, our heartfelt thanks to Alan and Emily for their efforts and contribution today.  Emily thanks for giving up a day of your holiday and helping out. Alan, we really appreciate your friendship and all your great ideas and continued support.

A BIG THANK YOU to all the WBHS students. You all worked very hard and did a great job and made a very valuable contribution to CUE Haven. You cleared massive sections of track and your efforts are much appreciated.

We hope you enjoyed the day as much as we did. We wish you all the best with your studies and in your endeavours to be guardians of our environment.

We look forward to having you all back for another productive day volunteering at CUE Haven and also for fun visits with your family and friends to explore more of CUE Haven – your community native forest reserve.

THANK YOU!! THANK YOU!!