Where's Hemi? Tasti tracks down Tu Meke inspiration

Hemi Murray, 27, at his Waiomio forestry worksite, has been rewarded for inspiring Tasti's new range of Tu Meke muesli bars. Photo / Michael Cunningham

Three weeks ago, Hemi Murray was just a regular logger from the Bay of Islands.

Now he is being flown around the country and potentially fronting an international marketing campaign, all because of his Kiwi ingenuity.

Hemi, 27, inspired a "Kiwiana" range of Tasti muesli bars called Tu Meke bars, following his call to the company last September.

"We were just sitting on the hill and having smoko and decided to call Tasti up and ask them if they could make some Kiwi flavours," Hemi said.

"I thought I might get a free packet just for calling but I got more than that."

Tasti was so impressed with Hemi's suggestion they followed through on his idea and developed three classic Kiwi flavours: chocolate orange, hokey pokey and coconut rough.

Hemi also suggested Tasti call them Tu Meke bars, which directly translates as "too much" but Hemi says basically means "awesome".

The only problem was that Hemi was nowhere to be found after leaving his suggestions. Because he had changed phone numbers, Tasti had no way of contacting him. So they launched the "Chur Hemi Fund" to both find him and raise money to thank him for the idea.

Tasti had customers vote for their favourite flavour on their Facebook page and for every vote the company made a donation to the fund. The most popular flavour, just announced to be coconut rough, will be permanently on the Tasti menu, while the others remain available until February.

Tasti spent about eight months searching for Hemi, said marketing director Lori-Jay Ellis. "It was a very arduous job to find him."

But following a story in the Northern Advocate, Hemi's friend, who was with him when he originally called Tasti, rang him and told him he was "famous".

"I don't know how to explain it really," Hemi said. "I just think it's awesome."

That was three weeks ago. Since then Hemi has been given more than 1200 muesli bars and over $500 cash from the fund. For most people, this would be around a year's worth of bars - but not Hemi. Before he even made the call, Hemi consumed two Tasti bars a day. As he works with a crew of hungry guys at Rosewarne Cable Loggers in Waiomio, Hemi has also been sharing the treats around. "They are rapt," he said. "They enjoyed the bars, that's for sure."

Soon Tasti will fly Hemi to a hatchery somewhere in the North Island to release a kiwi egg as part of the company's support of the Life Force Restoration Trust.

It is looking like Hemi may also front a marketing campaign to launch the Tu Meke bars into Australia.

The whole experience has given the smiling, unassuming logger a lot more confidence.

"And what about those online comments saying 'Hemi's quite Tasti'?" joked Ms Ellis.