Mihiwaka Honey is a family business based in Port Chalmers. Maan Tamang, the face behind Mihiwaka Honey, is originally from the foothills of Nepal and started beekeeping in 2008. Now managing over 500 hives across Dunedin and Central Otago, Maan is deeply committed to connecting the community with the environment, often taking time to share his knowledge about bees and the essential role they play in local ecosystems.

Lila White met Maan in 2018 and helped developed the business and expand the sale of honey to households and the hospitality industry in the lower South Island. Many Dunedin hotels now feature Mihiwaka Honey on their breakfast buffets, including full frames of honeycomb. Mihiwaka Honey also offers a beehive rental service in Dunedin, currently managing 85 rental hives across the city. This initiative allows residents to enjoy their own local honey and the benefits of pollination while supporting the wider community, as each hive pollinates gardens and surrounding properties within a 5km radius.

Maan keeps the bees strong and healthy by using organic pest management, seasonal inspections, and returning their own honey to the hives instead of feeding sugar. The beehives are registered under the Management Agency AFB PMP, and every jar of honey is fully traceable back to the hive it came from, with information listed on the labels of the jars.

Maan and Lila are excited to bring Mihiwaka Honey to the Otago Farmers Market, offering fresh, local honey while continuing to build connections between people, bees, and the environment. Committed to sustainability, they will have honey dispensers at the Market so customers can refill their own jars with two of their popular honeys.

Vendor Overview:  Dec 2025

Things are always buzzing at Mihiwaka Honey with a busy & engaging stall at the Otago Farmers Market.  And, at their almost 500 beehives in the wider Dunedin and Central Otago areas.

Beekeeper Maan Tamang grew up in the foothills of Nepal from a farming background, going on to construction and hospitality work around the world before settling in Dunedin and learning the gentle craft of bee welfare and the wonderful world of honey which he is so passionate about.

Meeting Lila White in Dunedin - who was born and bred in Christchurch, they both discovered common interests and values (Lila visited India and Nepal for many years where she taught English and has a background in refugee resettlement and social services previously) they blended their families and together and they are now the dynamic duo who greet you every Saturday morning!

Things start off in the spring with re-queening their beehives and establishing several dozen bee nurseries (Nucs) at their home Port Chalmers. It is fascinating to see first-hand the regal story of the ordered world of queen bees, virgin queens, mated queens, drones, the colony, etc where they all have a wide variety of food sources to choose from.  This includes borage, flowering kale and mustard & manuka flowers. 

Of their 400 honey producing hives, about half are spread throughout the wild bush and manuka and kanuka producing areas Silver Peaks, Waitati Valley and Whare Flat. Their clover hives are located in the farmlands from Palmerston to Kyeburn and Outram to Middlemarch while the viper’s bugloss and thyme hives are scattered into Central Otago. This year, they were lucky to acquire a new site of wild kamahi in Akatore near Milton.

Maan tries to ensure the hives are left enough of their honey to feed off during the colder months. In the absolute necessary situation when the flowering season is late or the weather is poor will Maan need to feed them the odd serving of sugar syrup.

Another service Maan & Lila having been providing for the past few years is rental beehive service “Rent-a-hive” for which they currently run 85 rental hives in urban Dunedin. People are able to hire a hive for the pollination of their gardens and keep 12kgs of their very own local raw honey produced from the hive.

Their top seller is the raw manuka / kanuka blend because it is a great local one to help customers with their immunity building due to its anti-inflammatory and exterior wound healing properties. Their popular Bush Honey is from whatever blooms in the wild that year during the spring. They also have a wide range of creamed, raw, and liquid varieties such as liquid thyme (very floral and smells like beeswax candles), creamed white and liquid clover (Lila’s favourite and great for food matching), viper’s bugloss (a toffee honey that’s like candy it’s so sweet & delicious), and raw and creamed kamahi, etc – all of which you can sample at their honey tasting station at the Market.  They also have available travel sized honey’s, family sized jars and “fill your own” options.

It is important to Maan & Lila that people are all able to afford honey and experience the health benefits so they have not increased their prices in over fifteen years.  Most of the top local hotels stock their honey also, so it gets to be enjoyed by people from all around the world.

Lila & Maan tried for many years to get into the Otago Farmers Market, so when an opportunity finally came up their perseverance paid off, and they love being here and the community feeling every week.  We love having them here too!  Everyone looks after each other they say and Maan especially loves the connections made each Saturday after a week working by himself with just his bees.