our story
Sometimes in life you reach a point when you think maybe it’s time for a change. Thats what happened to us back in 2021.
We made the key decision to shift our entire family, all six of us, from the Big City of Auckland to the tiny Far North Community of Taipa.
We had found a bare patch of land several years before and we’d been practicing the move by building a holiday utility structure so we could spend summer holidays appreciating the beauty of the Far North and the coast.
The final move saw us shift a transportable house on site and then began the real task of getting ourselves shifted and settled in our new home.
Everything went pretty well as planned, but what we hadn't expected was that we were moving into a tight nit little community up our lane, and that one of those community members had an idea that would change the entire direction of our future.
The property next door to ours was owned by a couple, James & Yas Moore. They had moved up North and settled in a couple of years before us and they had started to build a truly unique little business that operated under the name The Taipa Salt Pig.
Using nothing but sunshine and patience, they were collecting sea water and evaporating it to make sea salt crystals that they then sold at local markets, online and all-around New Zealand. We loved what they were doing.
One other thing we hadn’t expected was that once we’d got to know each other James and Yas would ask us to become part of The Taipa Salt Pig story.
Fast forward to today and our little band of relocated Aucklanders now jointly own and operate The Taipa Salt Pig and Oceanwater Co, two of New Zealand’s most environmentally friendly food production businesses.
We’ve learned to take clear seawater and using just the power of the sun we make two products essential to human life, sea salt and drinking water. Designed from the beginning to be as green as possible the business uses buckets to collect water, shifts water around the properties using gravity, everything we do has had thought put into it to ensure that the products we produce are produced in as environmentally friendly way as possible.
Our journey is just beginning. The Pig from Taipa is about to take flight, and while we look to keep The Taipa Salt Pig and Oceanwater producing its award-winning products, our founders James and Yas are off to do something they had in mind from day one. That was to develop a regional based business model that will see salt and water made and sold in local communities around New Zealand. It’s a truly exciting time for all of us up here in little old Taipa, and we can wait to see our new Salt Pig Collective team and community develop and flourish.
“embrace your inner sprinkle.....ditch the grinder”
“help us drink the Ocean”