Huka Honey Hive product reviews

As part of a recent family weekend in Taupo, we decided that our kids might enjoy a trip to The Huka Honey Hive. My initial reaction was that it was very touristy, the sort of place big buses would take tourists. The car park was certainly a good size. Inside was rather big, with lots of products for sale. As we walked around a bit we did find that there was a significant amount of educational displays - static and interactive. Our children (20 mths and nearly 4 at the time) loved looking around. The two things that really drew their attention were the live bees in the glass hive and the DVD playing in a cushions area at the back of the shop. Both of these kept the children's interest for quite some time. The educational area was great!

The honey tasting was a highlight for my husband and me. They had a wide variety of types of honey and also flavours that have been mixed with the honey. It was very hard to choose one flavour to bring home with us. We finally settled on a ginger honey which the kids just loved as well. They had honey wine tasting available too, but we didn't get a chance to try that. So far, our experience had been great - both kids and adults in our family entertained and happy.

We were about to head home to Hamilton and noticed that they had a cafe and the thought of a nice hot coffee lured my husband and me to the counter. We placed our orders and took a seat next to the well stocked fox box. Top marks for having a toy box as this means that parents can relax while waiting and drinking the coffee. Unfortunately when we got the coffee, it was the worst tasting coffee we had ever experienced. We are not the sorts to enjoy going up to the counter to complain but this coffee was not drinkable. The lady seemed rather surprised and said that it was the coffee they always had and said it was a very strong coffee. My husband and I drink quite a bit of coffee and we know what we like and this certainly didn't come near to it. The lady made a second cup for us. She made it half strength as she thought it might taste nicer for us. Complaining a second time isn't really for us, so we drank the second cup. It was a bit more tolerable, however it was still pretty bad.

We were about to leave and my husband went to use the toilets. He said that the state of them was pretty bad. He came out and mentioned it to the staff at the front counter. They didn't seem too worried and said that they check the toilets once a day. I would think that a more appropriate response to this would be to thank him for bringing it to their attention and then arranging for the toilets to be cleaned.

It is very unfortunate that the end of our experience at the Huka Honey Hive wasn't as pleasant as the rest of the visit. A few minor changes to our experience would have made so much difference to the lasting memory we have to Huka Honey Hive.