A Lake District ranger is buzzing off for some antipodean apiary, swapping his Ullswater patch for beehives down under.
After 17-years caring for the National Park’s second longest lake and four surrounding parishes, Colin Eastham is making a beeline to New Zealand’s Bay of Plenty, where he will be tending millions of bees producing famed Manuka honey.
"I’m 53 and ripe for kamikaze actions, so when I saw a seasonal job advertised in the magazine Beekeepers Quarterly, I couldn’t resist," explained Colin, who is leaving his own nine hives, each containing 60,000 bees, in his daughter’s care.
A beekeeper with 25 years’ experience, Colin will be arriving in New Zealand for the busy bee summer season and will be working amid large plantations of kiwi fruit, where later in the season the hives will be moved to collect healing Manuka honey.
The hive of activity in the Bay of Plenty will be quite literally a world apart from the life Colin has led as a Lake District National Park Authority ranger, where he has been responsible for looking after Ullswater and the surrounding countryside.
"This has been a great job and there’s a lot I’m going to miss," he said. I’ve really enjoyed all the conservation side of things and the opportunity to work with groups of people interested in the National Park, particularly school children.
"I don’t know how different the scenery will be, but caring for large numbers of fascinating social insects and collecting honey will be poles apart. Here, we are talking about tens of pounds of honey, there it will be tonnes!"
Colin, who has also worked as a National Park Authority fell top assessor, says has not made any long-term plans and will have to see if the venture will enthral him and keep him in New Zealand, or simply be a sting in the tail!
