Happy New Year! I hope you had a lovely Christmas and New Year period and are enjoying the summer so far. Everyone at Haumaru Housing is looking forward to continuing our work on your behalf over the coming year and supporting our wonderful, inclusive Haumaru communities for older people.
Whilst you’re out and about this summer, don’t forget about all the precautions that we still need to take against the dreaded COVID-19, so we can make sure we keep ourselves and our whānau safe – especially since there are now new variants with the potential to spread more rapidly. Also, keep using the NZ COVID Tracer app, which is essential for contact tracing if the worst came to the worst. Hopefully, the new vaccine will be available in the not too distant future, which will take us one step closer to life returning to normal.
Here’s to a healthy and happy 2021,
Gabby Clezy,
Chief Executive Officer
A wonderful celebration lunch was held just before Christmas for the re-opening of Topping Court’s community house in Mangere, following its extensive interior refurbishment. With the invitation to the event also extended to nearby Lambie Court and Court Town, tenants and staff greatly enjoyed the festivities and the chance to catch up with one another, whilst villagers were also able to get to know other Haumaru tenants living locally. An extra splash of colour was provided by tenants wearing the customary Cook Island ‘ei katu’ flower crown, traditionally worn at celebrations and special events. Haumaru has renovated the community house to create a comfortable, well appointed meeting space for social get-togethers, village events and activities, and for tenants’ general use and enjoyment.
It’s fantastic to see all the lovely and well cared for tenant gardens outside your units, which also add beauty and character to the general village environment. Some tenants also grow vegetables in their gardens for themselves or their fellow villagers – such neighbourly support and consideration is what living in a Haumaru village is about.
In the spirit of good neighbourliness, please would you only use the garden area specific to your unit for such activities and ensure that plants are kept to one metre in height or below all windows. Please do not dig up the communal areas for personal gardens.
If any tenants feel they can no longer maintain the garden areas outside their home, please speak to your Community Manager who’ll look into this for you to help ensure that all the gardens around the units are well maintained.
Happy gardening everyone!
On 2 December, Otara and Hills Court tenants enjoyed a sunny day out touring schools in the area that are part of the Enviroschools’ initiative, before having lunch at the Chua Bao An Buddhist Temple in Papatoetoe.
Enviroschools is a nationwide, environmental action based programme where children and young people are empowered to design and lead sustainability projects in their schools, neighbourhoods and in the country as a whole. The Enviroschools’ kaupapa is about creating a healthy, peaceful, sustainable world through learning and taking action together. Auckland Council is a regional partner of the programme, and Haumaru Housing has been working alongside Enviroschools to help connect the generations and is assisted in this by Otara-Papatoetoe Local Board.
The purpose of the tour on the 2nd was to connect Haumaru seniors with local Tamariki, through exploring the established garden areas in their schools and discovering
what’s happening in the enviro/sustainability space. Afterwards, tenants went on to the Chua Bao An Temple in Papatoetoe, where they met and had lunch with the Temple masters.
We all need to remember the golden rules in helping control the risk of COVID-19 spreading.
Washing your hands regularly, having the NZ COVID Tracer app on your phone and enabling Bluetooth tracing, scanning QR codes, and staying home if you’re unwell is the best way to unite in combatting the risk and making our summer unstoppable. Anyone with cold or flu-like symptoms should also get a test, which you can do anywhere in the country. Those who may be holidaying elsewhere in New Zealand shouldn’t wait until they get home to be tested; the Healthpoint website www.healthpoint.co.nz/covid-19/ has details of all the COVID-19 testing locations nearest you.
In case we ever have to go into a Level 4 lockdown again, make sure you’re prepared and that you have good support networks
in place – either friends and family or your Haumaru neighbours. Of course, we’ll also be here to help. Let’s hope for the best, but prepare for the worst (as
they say!).
For more information on COVID and the latest updates from the Ministry of Health, visit the Unite against COVID-19 website at covid19.govt.nz or call Healthline free on 0800 358 5453 for health advice and information.
Speaking about enjoying summer, look out for updates on your village noticeboard and for our letterbox drops about upcoming minivan trips and days out that are planned for your village in the next few weeks. We have a whole range of trips going here, there and everywhere in the Selwyn Community minivans, with the outings funded by Haumaru. In the last three months of 2020, we organised a total of 140 minivan trips for tenants to all sorts of scenic and interesting places around Auckland.
So look out for the timetable or speak to your Community Manager and get on board!
In our December edition, we profiled talented knitter, Asia Hinzee of Belmont Court who was looking to donate the beautiful toys she had knitted to a worthy cause. You’ll be pleased to know that, thanks to tenants’ suggestions, her colourful creations were delivered to the Takapuna branch of Oranga Tamariki – Ministry for Children, to be distributed as gifts to the children in their care.