A red and green phone booth that has popped up in Hāwea Flat is more than just an honesty box for local honey, the owner says.
Hamish Horsley said the novel honey stall had the added benefit of slowing traffic in front of his Kane Rd home.
Mr Horsley and Hāwea locals celebrated the opening of the stall last week.
"People really just love it, internationals and people from the North Island are shocked and have asked me how I’m going to secure it.
"For what? I tell them," he said.
Mr Horsley said he bought the phone booth from a woman in Dublin Bay who had "owned it for a few years".
"I knew straight away what I wanted to use it for.
"The people I brought it from had originally wanted to use it as a toilet in a paddock.
"Thankfully I got a hold of it," he said.
When he bought it the roof was off, it was all sanded down, and it only had "about three" windows left.
"This one has a mail slot in it, it’s a little bit like the repair shop with some of the things people have done to it and now it’s just part of it.
"I did a bit of research and got the exact colours for it to officially be post office red like in the UK," he said.
Mr Horsley, an ex-chef and baker turned beekeeper, said he had been beekeeping for five seasons and sells the honey for his brother’s business Sticky Buzz Bees from the phone booth via an honesty box.
"I thought I’d get one or two hives in the garden and wear a funny suit but turns out it’s a really social little hobby group.
"It is also quite an addictive hobby that makes you want to look for them more and more.
"When I stopped work I really got into the garden here, that’s how I got interested in bees," he said.
Mr Horsley praised those in the community that had helped bring the phone booth to life.
"My neighbour is a farmer and helped with the gravel, I also got a really good deal on the glass from Wānaka Glass and collision when he found out what it was for.
"I’ve never really built anything before so I’m pretty proud of how it turned out.
"It probably took about a week’s work over the course of a month," he said.
Mr Horsley said the phone booth which sits on the grass outside his Kane Rd home has helped slow down the traffic coming around the bend since it was first placed last week.
"We’ve been trying for years to get the speed slowed down out here.
"I think this might be the most effective thing we’ve done so far."
