New communal spaces at Mārahau Outdoor Education Centre

Each year, the Mārahau Outdoor Education Centre hosts over a thousand young people from across the Nelson and Tasman regions as part of the school camp programme. It’s a place where students can learn, explore, and enjoy themselves in the outdoors. It’s also a hub for local iwi, church and special interest groups from the community. It’s central to a bunch of great local attractions and activities, surrounded by some of New Zealand’s best natural features.

The centre has been a local institution since the 1970s and while it’s as popular as ever, it was beginning to get a bit run down. Mārahau Outdoor Education Centre Trust manager Don McLean felt they needed to lift the standards a bit, telling Top South Now “when things get to a certain point, people don't respect things quite so well. But if it looks good, they look after it, and I think that's what we needed to do.”

Brandon Beveridge, Mitre 10 MEGA Nelson Chief Executive, said supporting the project through our Helping Hands initiative “was a no-brainer”. Rounding up members of his team and partnering with long-time Trade customer Richie Norriss of Norriss Building, the Helping Hands crew dug in for a week of work, upgrading and adding new features to restore the place to its original glory.

The project included building a brand new deck that extends off the main mess hall and replacing the table tops on the barbecue tables. The firepit area got a massive upgrade with a new pit, a bunch of new seating and fresh coat of paint. The grounds also got a hefty makeover, with plenty of weeds coming out and heaps of new plants going in, the pathways were waterblasted, the gutters cleaned out, a section of roofing was repaired, and the bathrooms got a paint job.