Meet the Team: Ikanui Enoka
As part of our 25th anniversary, Superintendent and Geovert veteran Ika Enoka discusses his journey from driller to supervisor and his proudest project so far.
Ika Enoka can't quite remember his exact start date at Geovert, only that he's outlasted a few General Managers along the way. He's held nearly every role on the ladder in that time: labourer, offsider, driller, supervisor, works manager and now Superintendent, along with what he calls "a pinch of PM, but that sucked."
Before any of that, Ika was two years into life in Brisbane, working as a forklift operator and tired of the repetitive, indoor days. He spotted a newspaper ad from Geovert calling for a drill team and offering competitive rates, growth and travel. He had no idea what a drill was, but he knew what an excavator was, and that was enough to apply. He met Dave McEwen on site, was offered the job, and was inducted the next day. He then spent his first two months on site without seeing a single excavator, learning in a hurry what a polybin and a 410 were instead.
For a long time, Ika preferred to sit back and observe, taking on as little responsibility as possible. That changed as he came to understand the work well enough to question his supervisors' decisions, at first only to himself, then out loud. That habit of speaking up opened doors he hadn't expected, and in 2017/18 he was offered the chance to move back to New Zealand as Supervisor on Transmission Gully, his first official title in a leadership role. His growth continued from there across some of the largest and smallest civil projects in the country.
Transmission Gully remains the project he's most proud of.
"The scale of it was huge in every part, technically challenging, a logistical nightmare, planning on planning, action packed and full of drama. It could have made an award winning documentary."
He's watched the company grow from a New Zealand operation into a worldwide one, and values the chance that growth has created to travel and see how other countries do the work.
"Seeing the black machines overseas warms my heart every time."
What hasn't changed, in his view, is the brand and what Geovert means. He's left the company once in his career and come back, which says something about how he feels about it.
"The people you meet, the places you go, the things you do, it's something not many other workplaces could offer."
His advice for anyone starting out:
"You're either going to like it or you're not. What you do from here is how it will go."
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