KEY POINTS:
A 32-year-old English tourist admitted to hospital after eating poisoned honey has been released to continue his holiday.
Joseph Reynolds, at the centre of the toxic honey poisoning scare in the Coromandel, was discharged from Thames Hospital his morning.
A Waikato District Health Board (WDHB) spokeswoman said that Mr Reynolds, an IT support analyst, would continue holidaying in New Zealand with his partner Vanessa Whittle and her family.
They planned to return to the UK on April 1.
Two others affected after they ate comb honey, thought to have had high levels of tutin toxin, were his partner's sister Jo Whittle and her three year old son Daniel.
They were treated at the hospital and discharged.
Mr Reynolds and his partner, both of London, were holidaying at Onemana Bay, 3km off State Highway 25 on the eastern Coromandel coast, with Vanessa's parents, sister Jo and her two children, when the family reunion turned into a nightmare.
Only three in the group ate the honey on bread sandwiches. Joseph Reynolds and Jo Whittle ate the honey on Thursday morning while Jo's three-year-old son Daniel had "a slither" of honey on a sandwich on Thursday night.
Mr Reynolds was the first admitted to Thames Hospital after suffering a seizure about the time Daniel was eating his sandwich - while Jo Whittle and Daniel were brought in by ambulance the next day. Daniel also had a seizure. They were treated and discharged.
Ms Whittle said she had never been so scared as when she saw first Mr Reynolds and then hours later her son Daniel suffering seizures.
The New Zealand Food Safety Authority and WDHB this morning repeated their advice that all consumers who bought comb honey from the Coromandel area in recent days should throw it out.
"Suspect honey should be well wrapped in the rubbish so that bees are unable to get to it as if they did it would return the poison to the food chain.
The WDHB said that despite reports, health authorities had no plan to arrange drop-off points for people with honey they fear may be contaminated.
- NZPA
