Day 360: Beekeepers for a Day

Well we confused our days again and ends up we are leaving the South Island on January 6th instead of the 7th which means one less day for activities.

We shifted plans and hit a short hike to the Blue Pools, a blue glacial river where you can jump in and swim. We visited the town of Wanaka next and enjoyed incredible brisket and pork belly sandwiches.

Now when we first left Queenstown, we stopped by a cafe and honey distributor that offers bee tours; Kieran really wanted to do the tour so we signed up for the 3pm session and drove back to Queenstown. They walk you through substantial bee facts while teaching you how the collect the honey. We got to extract our own honey and take it home! Pure New Zealand honey. Next, we suited up to visit the hives and got to hold the slats while bees worked on their combs, honey, and children.

Here are our favorite bee facts:
1. To make a queen, bees take a baby larvae, put it in a cave, and feed the baby secretion from glands on there body

2. The men bees (drones) don’t do shit and are useless. When the hive needs to get ready for winter, they stop feeding the men and then kick them out

3. Bees love 8 mm of space; anything more and they go crazy. It’s called bee space.

We have way more, but just go on Wikipedia.

Tonight we were hosted by long time family friends Cath and John who met Kieran’s mom when she took two years off and hiked in New Zealand in her 30s. Their house is absolutely beautiful and sits on a lake across from Queenstown proper. We chatted about local politics and how they only go into Queenstown proper 3-4 times per year because it’s super touristy. Thank you Cath and John for your lovely hospitality ❤️

Spots:
Blue Pools
Wanaka
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