Waitakaruru hot spring Manuka Honey !
By Wetex Kang
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NZ $14,913 pledged
68 people pledged
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NZ $14,720 minimum target
This campaign was successful and closed on 09/01/2020 at 8:00 PM.
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Waitakaruru Hot Spring Manuka Honey !
Project 2019-09-23 05:16:13 +1200
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Have we discovered Hot Springs Honey? 
Beekeeping is often not just a profession or a hobby, it becomes a way of life. Something about the connectedness and cooperation of bees working together in a hive seems to rub off on their keepers. When a novice beekeeper needs help, a veteran beekeeper will become their mentor. When a beekeeper needs someone to tend to their hives, they turn to other in their beekeeping communities. So in April 2019, when we received a call for help from David, we answered. David is a beekeeper based in Tokaanu near Lake Taupo. He had not been well for some time and was unable to manage his hives.
A few days later, our teams worked around the clock over two days at Tokaanu to rescue 96 beehives (sadly we lost another 54) and transported them back to Ruatoki in the Bay of Plenty to our “bee hospital”. During this time, David showed us around his family’s homestead, beside the Tokaanu Hot Pools. We noticed beehives being kept warm by the hot springs and volcanic activity around the bush area of the homestead. David had even built a hot tub with a trough, fed by hot water pumped from the surrounding hot springs, which he believed helped him with his health. 
It was then that our Managing Director, Wetex had a lightbulb moment, his curiosity piqued. What if the bees can transfer the health benefits of the hot springs, via the manuka plants to the manuka honey harvested? What if the volcanic activities can stimulate the manuka trees to produce high activity manuka honey? What if the warmth provided by the volcanic activities can stimulate the bees’ health? This is what we are aiming to find out through this process.
Why crowdfunding (again)? We would love to find answers to these questions. However, we have no more beehives to move to this site as the 600 beehives that Waitakaruru Honey owns will be placed in Tahaaroa and Taranaki to collect manuka honey in November and December.
We have been speaking to our new shareholders at Waitakaruru Honey Limited as well as our wider crowd who missed out on our equity offer and have received feedback that they would welcome the option to increase their rewards. 
60 NEW BEEHIVES !! We need 16 to 60 production beehives (@$800+GST per beehive) to fully utilise this site. So we are turning to you, our crowd, to help us do this. How will the money be used? The money from this crowdfunding campaign will be used to purchase production beehives to be placed at this site at $800+GST each. We will need a minimum of 16 beehives and a maximum of 60. We will cover the cost of beekeeper to manage the hives and the cost of any testing, packaging and distribution of any honey produced at this site.
Meet our team 
Wetex Kang, Managing Director
Wetex graduated from the University of Otago in 1994 with a Bachelor of Pharmacy (Hons), with his Honours research on Pharmacokinetics published in the British Journal of Clinical Pharmacology. After his internship, he purchased a pharmacy in Auckland, New Zealand and embarked on a career in the health and wellness industry.
Trading under the company name, New Zealand Low Carb Ltd (NZLC), they started manufacturing its own range of nutritional supplements sold through its retail shop and online website. Between 1996 and 2014, Wetex consulted on the health and wellness of over 80,000 individuals within New Zealand (many of them professional athletes).
In 2004, he published his book on low carbohydrate/sugar nutrition. NZLC currently sells its products in Australia, Singapore and New Zealand. Wetex fell into beekeeping by accident and his passion for bees has seen him excel within the industry.
Wetex is also a queen bee breeder and has recently acquired the training to artificially inseminate queen bees. Wetex is also the managing director of NZ Honey innovations, a minority shareholder and partner organisation of Waitakaruru Honey Ltd 
Tony Porter, Beekeeping Team Leader
Tony is the team leader of the WHL team. Tony joined the program back in early 2018 when he was living in Rawene, in the Hokianga Region. The program helped Tony obtain his restricted drivers license and a bank account. Tony has 3 children and in early 2019, Tony moved to Auckland to lead the Waitakaruru team.
Sam Pickering, Beekeeper
Sam is our other permanent beekeeper at Waitakaruru. Sam grew up in the Hokianga area (Whirinaki) where he was trained as a beekeeper. Sam started his beekeeping apprenticeship 3 seasons ago in late 2017. Sam has experience in operating 400- 500 beehives in his previous beekeeping supervisory job. Sam is a young father with a young son. 
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Comments
Updates 2
Thank you for pledging to our Waitakaruru hot spring Manuka Honey Campaign
16/01/2020 at 9:27 AM
Our Waitakaruru hot spring Manuka Honey campaign has finished. We'd like to thank all of you who pledged to help us get hives to Tokaanu.
Over the next few days, we'll be emailing you individually to let you know about the reward you have selected and how to collect it or, in the case of honey, when you can expect delivery.
Beehives at Tokaanu, ready to collect honey
22/11/2019 at 11:35 AM
The manuka trees are flowering at Tokaanu. David rung and said if we do not bring our beehives, we are going to miss the manuka flow. So our BOP team delivered 44 beehives (16 to come next week) to the hot spring site and Dave put the hangi in the ground at 4am this morning.
Pledgers 68
05/01/2020 at 10:03pm
05/01/2020 at 10:00pm
02/01/2020 at 9:02pm
"You guys rock!!"
02/01/2020 at 11:07am
24/12/2019 at 8:50am
24/12/2019 at 8:49am
13/12/2019 at 9:35pm
06/12/2019 at 5:23pm
04/12/2019 at 6:34pm
04/12/2019 at 12:12pm
03/12/2019 at 12:03pm
28/11/2019 at 10:41am
27/11/2019 at 6:28pm
"great buzz"
27/11/2019 at 2:49pm
26/11/2019 at 11:40am
26/11/2019 at 11:38am
22/11/2019 at 7:18pm
22/11/2019 at 9:09am
21/11/2019 at 7:57pm
21/11/2019 at 5:53pm
20/11/2019 at 6:22pm
19/11/2019 at 1:11pm
18/11/2019 at 6:50pm
"Great experiment"
17/11/2019 at 11:04pm
17/11/2019 at 11:02pm
17/11/2019 at 2:34pm
16/11/2019 at 4:04pm
15/11/2019 at 4:54pm
15/11/2019 at 12:18pm
"Good luck with your latest project. :-)"
15/11/2019 at 11:41am
Followers 6
Followers of Waitakaruru hot spring Manuka Honey !
Waitakaruru Hot Spring Manuka Honey !
Project 2019-09-23 05:16:13 +1200
|
|
Have we discovered Hot Springs Honey?
Beekeeping is often not just a profession or a hobby, it becomes a way of life. Something about the connectedness and cooperation of bees working together in a hive seems to rub off on their keepers. When a novice beekeeper needs help, a veteran beekeeper will become their mentor. When a beekeeper needs someone to tend to their hives, they turn to other in their beekeeping communities. So in April 2019, when we received a call for help from David, we answered. David is a beekeeper based in Tokaanu near Lake Taupo. He had not been well for some time and was unable to manage his hives.
A few days later, our teams worked around the clock over two days at Tokaanu to rescue 96 beehives (sadly we lost another 54) and transported them back to Ruatoki in the Bay of Plenty to our “bee hospital”. During this time, David showed us around his family’s homestead, beside the Tokaanu Hot Pools. We noticed beehives being kept warm by the hot springs and volcanic activity around the bush area of the homestead. David had even built a hot tub with a trough, fed by hot water pumped from the surrounding hot springs, which he believed helped him with his health.
It was then that our Managing Director, Wetex had a lightbulb moment, his curiosity piqued. What if the bees can transfer the health benefits of the hot springs, via the manuka plants to the manuka honey harvested? What if the volcanic activities can stimulate the manuka trees to produce high activity manuka honey? What if the warmth provided by the volcanic activities can stimulate the bees’ health? This is what we are aiming to find out through this process.
Why crowdfunding (again)? We would love to find answers to these questions. However, we have no more beehives to move to this site as the 600 beehives that Waitakaruru Honey owns will be placed in Tahaaroa and Taranaki to collect manuka honey in November and December.
We have been speaking to our new shareholders at Waitakaruru Honey Limited as well as our wider crowd who missed out on our equity offer and have received feedback that they would welcome the option to increase their rewards.
60 NEW BEEHIVES !! We need 16 to 60 production beehives (@$800+GST per beehive) to fully utilise this site. So we are turning to you, our crowd, to help us do this. How will the money be used? The money from this crowdfunding campaign will be used to purchase production beehives to be placed at this site at $800+GST each. We will need a minimum of 16 beehives and a maximum of 60. We will cover the cost of beekeeper to manage the hives and the cost of any testing, packaging and distribution of any honey produced at this site.
Meet our team
Wetex Kang, Managing Director
Wetex graduated from the University of Otago in 1994 with a Bachelor of Pharmacy (Hons), with his Honours research on Pharmacokinetics published in the British Journal of Clinical Pharmacology. After his internship, he purchased a pharmacy in Auckland, New Zealand and embarked on a career in the health and wellness industry.
Trading under the company name, New Zealand Low Carb Ltd (NZLC), they started manufacturing its own range of nutritional supplements sold through its retail shop and online website. Between 1996 and 2014, Wetex consulted on the health and wellness of over 80,000 individuals within New Zealand (many of them professional athletes).
In 2004, he published his book on low carbohydrate/sugar nutrition. NZLC currently sells its products in Australia, Singapore and New Zealand. Wetex fell into beekeeping by accident and his passion for bees has seen him excel within the industry.
Wetex is also a queen bee breeder and has recently acquired the training to artificially inseminate queen bees. Wetex is also the managing director of NZ Honey innovations, a minority shareholder and partner organisation of Waitakaruru Honey Ltd
Tony Porter, Beekeeping Team Leader
Tony is the team leader of the WHL team. Tony joined the program back in early 2018 when he was living in Rawene, in the Hokianga Region. The program helped Tony obtain his restricted drivers license and a bank account. Tony has 3 children and in early 2019, Tony moved to Auckland to lead the Waitakaruru team.
Sam Pickering, Beekeeper
Sam is our other permanent beekeeper at Waitakaruru. Sam grew up in the Hokianga area (Whirinaki) where he was trained as a beekeeper. Sam started his beekeeping apprenticeship 3 seasons ago in late 2017. Sam has experience in operating 400- 500 beehives in his previous beekeeping supervisory job. Sam is a young father with a young son.
|
|
Comments
Thank you for pledging to our Waitakaruru hot spring Manuka Honey Campaign
16/01/2020 at 9:27 AM
Our Waitakaruru hot spring Manuka Honey campaign has finished. We'd like to thank all of you who pledged to help us get hives to Tokaanu.
Over the next few days, we'll be emailing you individually to let you know about the reward you have selected and how to collect it or, in the case of honey, when you can expect delivery.
Beehives at Tokaanu, ready to collect honey
22/11/2019 at 11:35 AM
The manuka trees are flowering at Tokaanu. David rung and said if we do not bring our beehives, we are going to miss the manuka flow. So our BOP team delivered 44 beehives (16 to come next week) to the hot spring site and Dave put the hangi in the ground at 4am this morning.
05/01/2020 at 10:03pm
05/01/2020 at 10:00pm
02/01/2020 at 9:02pm
"You guys rock!!"
02/01/2020 at 11:07am
24/12/2019 at 8:50am
24/12/2019 at 8:49am
13/12/2019 at 9:35pm
06/12/2019 at 5:23pm
04/12/2019 at 6:34pm
04/12/2019 at 12:12pm
03/12/2019 at 12:03pm
28/11/2019 at 10:41am
27/11/2019 at 6:28pm
"great buzz"
27/11/2019 at 2:49pm
26/11/2019 at 11:40am
26/11/2019 at 11:38am
22/11/2019 at 7:18pm
22/11/2019 at 9:09am
21/11/2019 at 7:57pm
21/11/2019 at 5:53pm
20/11/2019 at 6:22pm
19/11/2019 at 1:11pm
18/11/2019 at 6:50pm
"Great experiment"
17/11/2019 at 11:04pm
17/11/2019 at 11:02pm
17/11/2019 at 2:34pm
16/11/2019 at 4:04pm
15/11/2019 at 4:54pm
15/11/2019 at 12:18pm
"Good luck with your latest project. :-)"
15/11/2019 at 11:41am
Followers of Waitakaruru hot spring Manuka Honey !
