Comvita Wellness Lab

Comvita's Wellness Lab sits on the harbour edge and is part shop, part sensory room. The tasting session takes a small group — eight at most — into a curved theatre where film of the hive and the flowering landscape wraps around the walls, while a host works through three honeys, from an everyday clover to an ultra-premium mānuka. The point is to notice how the plants a bee visits change what ends up in the jar, which makes it closer to a wine tasting than a shop demonstration, and there is enough beekeeping in it to hold a curious child. Sessions are suitable from about the age of eight, and each taster leaves with a jar. It works best as three-quarters of an hour carved out of a waterfront walk rather than as an afternoon in itself, and it is one of the few indoor things to do along this stretch when the weather turns.