01/09/2026
What a weekend 🔥
I headed across the ditch this weekend for a pretty special reason, to surprise a mate I haven’t seen in ages, catch up with some good people, and do what I know best, fire up a BBQ and cook for everyone.
The only slight problem with flying to another country to cook BBQ is you can’t exactly throw the smoker in the overhead storage 😂
So before heading over, I put a post up in the NZ BBQ community asking for a little help, and honestly, I was absolutely blown away by the response.
The generosity, offers and willingness to help from people who had never even met me was incredible.
A massive thank you has to go to Steven Cook from Cook Cartel , who went above and beyond and basically made the whole cook possible. Steve sorted me out with everything I needed, a drum smoker, charcoal, temp probes and even Swift pork ribs. I pretty much just had to turn up and cook!
Mate, I genuinely can’t thank you enough for your generosity and for trusting some random Aussie with your gear 😂
Another HUGE thank you to Mapari Meats , who incredibly generously supplied the brisket and meat for the cook. The quality of the meat was absolutely unreal and it certainly didn’t go unnoticed by everyone around the table! Everything was perfect.
What started as a simple idea to fly over, surprise a mate and cook some BBQ for him and his friends turned into something much bigger for me.
BBQ has always been about more than just the food, it’s everything.
It’s about bringing people together, sitting around a table, having a laugh, sharing a b**r and forgetting about everything else for a while.
This weekend was a pretty bloody good reminder of that. Met some pretty cool amazing people while over there too 😉 Thank you to all those who made this happen and kept the secret too 😆
To everyone in the NZ BBQ community who commented, messaged, offered equipment, meat, advice or simply wanted to help, thank you.
You made an Aussie feel very welcome on your side of the ditch 🇦🇺🤝🇳🇿
And most importantly, we got to put on one hell of a feed for a good mate.
That’s what BBQ is all about ❤️🥹
