Every Tuesday and Thursday morning the workshop opens its doors to volunteers looking to offer their skills and services to projects in the community.
Workshop spokesman Ian Maxwell said the sessions provided a service for the community and a space for people to socialise.
The group’s present project was aimed at helping the southern crested grebe.
By bringing the largely older, male group together, the workshop provided an informal space for people to develop relationships — and perhaps share problems — without the stigma or clinical settings of other health services.
‘‘I don’t think ... too many older New Zealand blokes [are] going to pop up and go ‘man, I’m really struggling here’,’’ Mr Maxwell said.
‘‘But you can pick that up and you make friends and you get closer to people.
‘‘Trust is built and then those sorts of stories are shared.’’
The platforms, built to give grebes safe nesting sites visible from the boardwalk between town and the marina, required maintenance after months in the water.
But Mr Maxwell and his community workshop colleagues were going a step further by improving the design while testing ways to make the platforms less environmentally damaging.
‘‘We’ve noticed that some of the nests that are built by the grebes essentially slip off the platform so we’re tying some sticks into the top of the platform so that when they build their nests they’re better able to withstand the movement instead of just slipping off.’’
In addition to adding grip to the platform, the group had changed their anchoring point and lengthened the chain securing it to the lake bed, improving the protection they offered in strong winds.
Traditionally, the platforms’ buoyancy had come from pool noodles, but Mr Maxwell said with the noodles disintegrating, the group was trialling several new buoyancy methods.
‘‘We’re trying to provide two or three different varieties that won’t corrode as much as the pool noodles.
‘‘The difficulty is that they will float higher, which presents a problem of the platforms blowing over, so we’ll need to provide an anchoring system or a keel, like a yacht.
‘‘The intention is we’ll find one that works really well, and then we’ll move away from pool noodles altogether.’’
Lake Wānaka grebe project platform operations manager Markus Hermanns said the platforms — originally designed by Wānaka local John Darby — played a ‘‘critical’’ role in boosting the grebe population in both Wānaka and Hāwea.
Project members were grateful for the ‘‘excellent work and immense help of the community workshop’’.
‘‘This keeps the platforms seaworthy and ready for the next breeding season at no extra cost to the grebe project,’’ he said.
‘‘Without their skilled, reliable input the platforms would quickly degrade and the whole programme could stall.’’
