KEY POINTS:
Vaughan van Rensburg ate four pieces of toast smeared thickly in toxic honey and, two weeks later, is still feeling the effects.
"I just feel nauseous and congested and a bit lethargic," the 36-year-old said yesterday. "I'm just getting rid of the toxins."
Mr van Rensburg, who is principal of Opoutere School near Whangamata, was on his way to visit his mother-in-law in Thames Hospital when he suffered violent seizures.
The stocky former rugby player had eaten the toxic honey for breakfast and, unbeknown to him, his mother-in-law, Sarah Rutherford, had also been poisoned.
She and her husband, Chris, had been visiting from Christchurch when they were taken ill after eating the honey.
Mrs Rutherford suffered worse effects than her husband and was hospitalised, but it was not until news reports about the toxic honey surfaced that the family put two and two together.
Mr van Rensburg spent several days in Waikato Hospital, remembering little of his seizures or the following days. He is still suffering from headaches a week after being discharged.
He and his wife, Lucy, hold no grudge against the beekeeper who produced the honey, saying it was "just one of those things".
"I just feel lucky that I've got my husband back, that he's walked out of the hospital," Mrs van Rensburg said.
But the couple remained concerned that other unsuspecting people, particularly someone frail, might eat the honey.
Mrs van Rensburg believed part of the reason her husband had not suffered worse effects was because of his size. Mr van Rensburg said: "It takes a lot to knock me out."
The couple were also thankful they had not fed the honey to their 2 1/2-year-old son, Jack, and baby daughter, Poppy.
Mr van Rensburg's medical bills are being covered by ACC, but he is worried that the official diagnosis so far has been epilepsy.
He has been told he cannot drive for a year because of the risk of seizures - the same situation facing a Palmerston North man who was poisoned by the honey.
Mr van Rensburg starts a new job in Auckland in three weeks and said not being able to drive would be a disaster for him and his family.
Meanwhile, an Opoutere woman who feeds bees told the Herald she had noticed a different type of bee in the area this year and wondered if they had something to do with the toxic honey scare.
Jessie Keenan, who has lived at the small settlement for more than 30 years, said she had seen black bees as well as ordinary ones feeding on jars of jam she left out this summer.
"It's been quite odd," she said.
For about five years, Mrs Keenan has put out jars of her home-made jam for the bees, so as not to waste the jam and to give the bees a feed before winter. She said she had never seen the black bees before and suspected they had flown into coastal areas because dry conditions had left them starving in their usual habitat in the hills.
