About Us
Harvesting Tawari honey from the Raukumara Ranges led Barry Foster and Brian Gibson to share a bond and passion for the native forest, climate, and the natural rhythms of the seasons.
As beekeepers, they care about the natural habitat where bees live. From their experience and observations, they know everything in nature is linked. Bees depend on the diversity of the natural world. Likewise, people depend on and are linked to the environment.
Both are actively involved in the Trees-for-Bees research and share similar conservation views. Keeping chemicals to a minimum they use certified organic treatments, where possible but also use standard miticides. No chemicals of any sort are ever used while the bees are collecting Tawari honey.
They planted hundreds of pollen and nectar-producing trees at their own apiary sites to ensure adequate nutrition during spring, autumn, and winter. As their operations were about the same size (120 hives each) it made sense to partner and focus on the quality of their honey.
They harvest and transport their honey to an extraction facility, Goldspree Apiaries Ltd, Bond Road Ormond, Gisborne. It is bottled at Pauariki Honey Ltd, Tupaea St Gisborne (a factory previously owned by Barry).
Barry and Brian are proud to oversee the entire process – from the flower to your table!
Meet our Team
Barry Foster
Barry Foster is a partner in Tawari Mountain Honey with Brian. His career in the bee industry spans 40+ years. After leaving school, he worked in the banking industry for eight years and travelled overseas in the late 1970s. On return to New Zealand in 1980, he purchased his father's small commercial beekeeping business which he grew to medium-sized employing two full-time staff and later building a factory. Barry has a philosophy 'you have to love bees to do any good at beekeeping.' Needless to say, Barry loves bees.
The factory grew to process bio-gro certified organic honey and later was a pioneer in the development of medical-grade manuka honey in the early 2000s. This factory has since been sold. Barry is passionate about the careful processing of bee products and works closely with people to ensure the highest quality.
Barry has some twenty years of experience in governance roles in beekeeping organisations at a national level. He spent eleven years as a member of the board of the National Beekeepers Association, two years as President of the National Beekeepers Association, and has been Chairperson of the Apiculture New Zealand Science & Research focus group since 2015.
Internationally he presented on speaking tours to Chile in 2014 and 2019 on behalf of Trees for Bees to the Apimondia Congress in Montreal. Barry is an ambassador for the Trees for Bees Research Trust and a member of Business Network International.
When not caring for bees, Barry is a keen outdoor person, tramper, and conservationist.
Brian Gibson
Brian Gibson is a partner in Tawari Mountain Honey with Barry. He was born in Gisborne and grew up on a farm at Matawai, halfway between Gisborne and Opotiki, where his family has lived since 1841. He resided only a few kilometres from where the Tawari honey is harvested, so knows the area well.
After leaving school in 1963 trained in Medical Laboratory Technology, then completed a BSc in Microbiology and Biochemistry. Brian attended the University of Otago Medical School and after further training in the UK in Obstetrics, was a General Practitioner in Gisborne for 34 years.
Brian has been a beekeeper since the early 1980s. Since retiring from medical practice in 2013, he expanded his own beekeeping operation to a small commercial level with 120 hives, concentrating on Manuka and Tawari honey.
The Tawari Tree
Tawari (Ixerba brexioides) is a small tree, up to 10m high, endemic to the central and upper North Island.
Fossil remains of this genus first appeared in the late Eocene epoch, about 30-40million years ago.
The range extends south to about Lake Waikaremoana in Te Urewera, so our area is close to the southern limit.
It is a tree of the high altitude rain forest, in some areas occurring at 1500ft (460m) altitude, but in our area only growing vigorously at around 2,000ft (610m).
Tawari is a beautiful tree, with a spreading crown, deep green, long and coarsely serrated leaves, and from late November covered in masses of white flowers.
The flowers (whakou), in ancient times used by Maori in garlands and necklaces, produce copious nectar which is highly attractive to bees, and converted into a very light coloured and fragrant honey.