The morning when she suddenly lost her eyesight split the whole life of Te Puke photographer and happy wife and mum, Neisha Connor, into ‘before’ and ‘after’. A firm believer that everything happens for a reason, she didn’t let that ‘episode’, as she now calls it, let her down and found a new way to do what she loves the most – helping people. She created Beekawa – a natural healing balm that kiwis are raving about.
Words & Images KSENIIA SPODYNEIKO
Neisha always believed in signs. She grew up in Te Puke, in a loving family with two brothers. Right next to their farm was her favourite hill with gorgeous views. “I remember climbing up that hill as a kid and saying to mum that I wanted to live there. She was just laughing because that land was for the cows, not humans.” Fast forward some good dozen years, when Neisha and her husband Simon were looking for a place to settle down, that land suddenly went up for sale! They bought it and built their dream home overlooking the peaceful Bay of Plenty countryside. Exactly the way she’d always envisioned it.
She might have missed another sign from her childhood, though. Neisha’s favourite pastime was to pick dandelions from their paddock. Little did she know she would later harvest those dandelions again. Not as a curious kid any more but as a lady boss, brewing Beekawa balms for at least 300 excited customers per week.
Instead, Neisha decided to chase her other passion – photography. “I’ve had a camera in my hands since I was 10. I also did photography as a part of my Waikato University teaching degree.”
She taught full-time for 14 years and only really got into photography after giving birth to daughter, Marlia-Rose (6) and son, Beauden (4). “We decided that I’d be a stay at home mum and look after our kids. It made no sense for me to go and teach other people’s children while someone else had to teach ours. There was no pressure to earn money but the opportunity to photograph weddings and family portraits meant I could bring in a bit of extra coin and I felt better for it.”
Her side hustle snowballed into something bigger quite quickly. In the blink of an eye, she found herself operating from her own studio, doing six photoshoots per day and staying up night after night editing the images. “I was working a ridiculous number of hours. I’m not sure how I managed to sustain it for so long, to be honest. But I really loved it. I was meeting new people, going to stunning places. I felt really honoured that people trusted me to capture the most precious moments of their life.”
THE DARK DAY
Alarm bells soon rang. “In March last year, I started getting frequent headaches and noticed a weird blur in my right eye. I thought I was just really tired. I told no one what was happening and kept on flying at high speed, just using my other eye to take photos.”
That dreadful Thursday morning three weeks after the first symptoms appeared, Neisha woke up to complete darkness. Her right eye had stopped functioning. She was taken to Tauranga hospital.
“I was terrified. Brain tumour, glaucoma, cataract – diagnoses were rejected one by one. I went through so many tests but no one could give me an answer. That was the scariest time of my life.”
A year later, Neisha still doesn’t have a definite diagnosis. Although the right eye has healed by itself almost entirely, she is legally blind in her left eye (that second ‘episode’ happened three months later).
Even in hospital, all Neisha could think about was her work. She had a wedding photoshoot on Saturday. “I told my doctor – I needed to be out by then. I just couldn’t let those people down.”
When it became clear she wasn’t going anywhere any time soon, Neisha grabbed her phone to find a photographer to replace her. It was the high season and everyone was booked out. Except for one woman, whose partner was having a birthday that day and so she wasn’t working. “I started to chat with her and we just clicked. Her vision, her attitude – I knew I could trust her.” Now Neisha could finally relax and focus on her health.
“After the second ‘episode’ I had to admit that was it with my passion. No one would ever want to hire a blind photographer! It broke my heart. I cried so many tears. I felt absolutely helpless and guilty for putting my family into a situation where we had to spend so much money on my tests and medication and also pay back all the customers who’d booked my photoshoots months and years ahead.”
HELPING OTHERS TO HEAL HERSELF
No longer able to work as a photographer, Neisha couldn’t sit still, so she took kawakawa leaves they used for tea, and wax she bought for candles and decided to brew a balm for her family. Her husband, who is a builder, and her little kids are no strangers to cuts and bruises, so creating something healing for them made her feel better mentally.
“It wasn’t ideal, of course. I did it on my stove and reused an old jar to keep it. I didn’t have coconut oil, so it turned out really solid. But it still worked!”
After three months of trial and error, googling recipes and gathering feedback, Neisha was finally ready to set up a proper business. The name was born immediately. “I was just looking at my ingredients – beeswax, kawakawa… Beekawa! At first, that new word made me giggle every time I pronounced it but I had no doubt it was the right one.”
When Neisha signed up for last year’s Focus on Women Expo, she was barely six weeks into it. “We had to quickly launch the website, print T-shirts with logos and learn how to look as professional as possible, while, in fact, we were only just on our first baby steps.”
Beekawa turns one this year and with 30 to 70 orders per day, Neisha admits she has never been busier and happier in her life. “I’m at home, spending time with my kids, and Simon takes a day off here and there. And my house just smells so wonderful!”
The delicious aroma comes from the natural ingredients she uses. There are no essential oils in Beekawa balm, and the mixture is brewed from plants that she harvests by hand or sources from small local businesses like Belle Honey Co. in Papamoa.
“It was never about the money for me. I wanted to help people, so I’m adamant about using real plants, supporting local businesses and creating something that really works. We also follow all Māori traditions in harvesting kawakawa: karakia (prayer) is said, any left-over kawakawa is always put back and we don’t harvest in the rain. The whole process requires a lot of extra time but I won’t give up on keeping it very personal.”
Neisha and her customers are still discovering new ways to use her product. What was created as a healing balm for cuts and scratches, turned out to be a great moisturiser for lips and skin as well. “One of my customers uses it in her bath and the other one says it’s the best makeup remover she’s ever used!”
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