Southern Alps Honey
Southern Alps Honey is based in the foothills of the stunning Southern Alps in Staveley, Canterbury.
Owners, Ben and Leah created Mees Bees Limited along with their honey brand, Southern Alps Honey, in 2014.
During the summer months, hives are located deep in the Rakaia Gorge in alpine and subalpine areas where the bees produce clover honey.
They are relocated in late summer to the Black Beech forests of the foothills, allowing bees to produce Honeydew, Manuka and Native Forest multi-floral honey.
This allows them to gather honey stores, reducing the need to feed sugar syrup over winter. A number of hives remain in the Beech forest while others are moved to clover sites in the Rakaia Gorge, where they will stay until the end of summer.
Here the bees have an abundance of pollen and nectar, along with the purest water from alpine streams to feed from.
These areas are isolated and away from intensive farming practices, where sprays and agrichemicals are used.
Their hives are strategically positioned to cause minimal disturbance to the land and bees have access to fresh water, plenty of pollen and a nectar source.
With a state-of-the-art monitoring system, GPS coordinates of every hive are recorded using RFID (Radio Frequency Identification) tags. These keep track of each batch of honey and allow the Southern Alps Honey team to record where exactly it was produced.
Visit their website here.
Products supplied by Kaipak
200ml, 400ml and 750ml square Honey Jar with lids.
Product intro
At Southern Alps Honey, we pack our range of beech honeydew honey, creamed clover, creamed multi floral and manuka, dew & native floral honey into Kaipak Square Honey jars.
These range from 250g, 500g and 1kg bottles.
Our Beech Honeydew is dark honey with rich malt and woody flavours. Studies have shown that New Zealand Beech Honeydew has one of the highest levels of antioxidants of all New Zealand honeys.
Southern Alps Honey also makes a range of bee balm and night cream.
Q&A with Southern Alps Honey
How long have you worked with Kaipak?
Since 2019
Why Kaipak? What made you choose them and why do you continue to use their products?
Supporting local businesses has always been important to us and with Kaipak just down the road, it was a no-brainer.
We collect our orders from Ashburton, saving on increasing freight costs. Kaipak prices are fair and customer service is exceptional.
What do you think that Kaipak does differently compared to anyone else?
Communication is a huge aspect when it comes to customer service.
We’ve developed a strong business relationship with Jonny and Adam over the years.
Communication and approachability are really important to us – if we are running low on product (jars), it’s great to be able to phone either of them directly, make an order and pick up within 24 hours.
What difference has Kaipak made to your business?
They provide a great service. Prices are fair and by sourcing our jars here we have saved on freight charges.
When we have been ridiculously busy and unable to get to Ashburton to collect an order, Kaipak has delivered to us.
“The team at Kaipak are great to deal with and offer a service we can not fault. They go above and beyond to help us out where they can. Thank you, keep up the good work!”
Ben and Leah Mee – Southern Alps Honey