Aoraki Construction Ltd

What a way to start the New Year - last Friday (17th January) was the whakatūwheratanga (opening) at Te Ao Mārama – attended by Te Wānanga o Aotearoa team, Ngati Toa Rangatira, Porirua city Mayor Anita Baker, some of the design team, a few of our subcontractors and from the Aoraki team: Gazelle Moinfar, Lance Wallis, Beckie McKinney, Harry Bampton, Steve Kessell, Caroline Anderson, Herc Pona, Chief Paki, Dion Rivers and Director Chris Goldsbury.   This was a really special morning, Te Wānanga o Aotearoa put on a Hāngī, Crayfish, and raw fish salad, welcomed their community into the space, and showed their gratitude to everyone involved.   There was some mega hard mahi that went into completing Te Ao Mārama on time and to the high standard of finish that was achieved, and our team thoroughly enjoyed it – in fact, it has been one of Project Manager Gazelle Moinfar's favourite projects to date!   Thanks for a really rewarding experience Te Wānanga o Aotearoa, it has been a pleasure working with and for you once again.

It was a big day for StraitNZ's Bluebridge Connemara yesterday, with the Pohutukawa Lounge opening its doors to customers for the first time on what was a beautiful day for a crossing! This was definitely a unique project for our team, who really enjoyed the challenge and constant change of scenery. All of the demolition and construction took place while the ship remained in service, meaning 10-hour shifts travelling back and forth across the Cook Strait. We'll head back to land, for now(!), but hopefully many happy travelers will enjoy the lounge as part of their summer break!

The Aoraki whānau were lucky enough to get a visit from Santa on Sunday, at our annual whānau Christmas BBQ. It is always great to get everyone's wider families together, and this year was no exception. The Aoraki kids (big and small) enjoyed a relaxed afternoon of food, music, games and Santa and his elf even brought a sack of pressies. Back to work this week before the real break - in the meantime we hope everyone has an enjoyable lead up to Christmas!

Works are progressing out at All Secure Self Storage in Paraparaumu to repair storm damage to the roof and structure of the building. The existing storage building has been encapsulated by a gigantic tent and demolition of the level 1 - roof structure has been completed so we are now rebuilding the structure from the level 1 floor slab to the roof. The first and second areas of structural steel are being installed (we have broken the building into 4 areas of steel installation in order to work around the temporary tent structure), while the remaining steel is in production. Meanwhile, the scaffolders have been busy building loading bays out the front of the project in preparation for the delivery of roofing sheets - circa 25m long sheets that need to be fed into the temporary tent. All of this is working towards having the fit out of storage lockers underway to level 1 before the end of the year, with the gigantic tent planned to be removed in early 2025 - a great way to start the new year!

During the month of October we held an Aoraki Construction Ltd Hauora Challenge - encouraging the team to get out and be active. We recorded our active time on Strava, a bit of friendly competition helping to motivate several of the team to get up into 50+ hours of activity for the month! Project Coordinator Beckie McKinney took out the top spot with a massive 69 hours and 14 minutes of active time, closely followed by Construction Manager Kirk Sutton who achieved 65 hours and 16 minutes. It was really great to see everyone embracing the challenge, getting out in all sorts of weather and supporting each other to keep going. Keep up the great work team!

After 9 months on-site at Strathmore Ave we’re pleased to be able to hand over 6x 2-bedroom duplex units and 2x 4-bedroom standalone houses to Kāinga Ora - Homes and Communities. A big shout out to our site team – Jacob Purdie-Smith, Aaron Stephens, Nitin Patel and Beckie McKinney for a job well done. We hope the development provides happy homes for a long time to come!

We were delighted to attend the whakatūwheratanga of Te Wānanga o Aotearoa’s new Wellington campus – Kīwai, this week. Walking through the campus it was a pleasure to hear the excitement in the voices of the kaimahi who were in attendance, eager to get into their new space and make it their own. 

Last week saw the installation of the waharoa for Te Wānanga o Aotearoa's Te Ao Marama campus. This waharoa will lead into the noho space, which has the capacity to sleep 80 people. It was great to have the team from Te Wānanga o Aotearoa on site to watch the process!

The team on board the Bluebridge Cook Strait Ferries' Connemara have got their sea legs now, and are making progress towards delivering the brand new Pōhutakawa lounge for people to enjoy during their crossing! All images are indicative and for illustration purposes only.

Aoraki are proud to be accredited Living Wage employers, so it was a real privilege to attend the Living Wage celebration hosted by Mayor Tory Whanau last week, to meet the Chair of the Board of the Living Wage Movement, Rev. Stephen King, and other Living Wage employers based in Wellington. We whole-heartedly support the Living Wage Movement and helping people to thrive not just survive, so we have paid our employees above this rate since our formation in 2019.