About Us

Kahotea - (noun) a dark green vareity of greenstone with light-coloured streaks or spots. Kia ora and welcome to created by KAHOTEA. created by KAHOTEA is the combination of Tiare Designs and Leishy Janes. Two small businesses based in Whangarei, Aotearoa, run by two sisters and a daughter/niece. It has been a dream to start a website and after a lot of interest we decided to do it. We are a close whānau so the idea to create one website that stocked both businesses was a no brainer. How did we get the name? Great question! As well as being a beautiful piece of greenstone, Kahotea is actually our whānau name. The name was the hardest part in our journey. Trying to come up with something that represented the three of us proved to be more difficult than we thought. Then came the idea of using our whānau name - it was right in front of us the whole time! So we messaged our Dad/Koro who checked with our Uncle - "Go for it!" they said. Now it was real! Who is created by KAHOTEA? created by KAHOTEA is run by two sisters - Kylie and Leish and Kylie's daughter Shayla. Who is Tiare Designs? Tiare Designs is run by Shayla (15) who started her business as part of her school enterprise programme at Kamo Intermediate in 2020. She spent the year creating business plans, working out costs and then eventually taking part in the school market day at the end of the year. She had a very successful day so she decided to continue on with Tiare Designs by creating a Facebook page. Her page gained alot of interest and soon she was supplying two local stores in Whangarei as well as sending her poi worldwide. Since then she had attended local and out of town markets alongside runnning her Facebook page. Tiare Designs handmakes all their poi which are also plastic free with the inside of the upoko (head) being made out of recycled polyester from recycled water bottles. Shayla is supported by her Mum Kylie and the rest of her whānau. Who is Leishy Janes? Leishy Janes is run by Leish who started crafting as a hobby while being a stay at home mum of 3. What started as wooden signs soon turned into key rings, tumblers then earrings and other resin items. With the support of all her whanau she started selling at markets and on Facebook, Tik Tok and Instagram. All Leishy Janes products are handmade using FDA approved resin or hyperion. Thank you for checking out our website. We truly appreciate each and every one of you!