09/08/2026
🔥 KING OF THE MOUNTAIN — DONE & DUSTED! 🔥
What an epic weekend at King of the Mountain BBQ Competition in Taranaki! 🥩🔥
We didn’t quite get the results we were chasing this time around, but that’s BBQ! We’ve come away with a heap more knowledge, plenty to take back to the drawing board, and even more motivation for the next one. 💪
A massive congratulations to Steve, Mike & Captain from Cook Cartel – the Cooks! 🏆 These legends were paired up with us for the weekend and went on to take out GC – Grand Champions! On top of that, they’ve earned themselves an entry to the BBQ World Championship in Las Vegas! 🇺🇸🔥 Absolutely huge achievement and very well deserved.
We can’t thank the Cooks enough for all the knowledge, advice and help they shared with us throughout the weekend. That’s one of the best things about this BBQ community — everyone is willing to lend a hand, share a few tips and help each other improve. We definitely learnt a lot!
Huge congratulations as well to Rum and Que on taking out a very close RGC – Reserve Grand Champion. Another awesome result from an incredible team! 👏
A few other big thank-yous are definitely in order:
🔥 Bigfoot BBQ — massive thanks for lending us your Cambro for the competition. Really appreciate you helping us out!
🔥 Devil's Cut BBQ — our neighbours for the weekend and, as always, thanks for another epic weekend and the awesome hospitality. Always a good time having you guys next door! 🍻
🔥 And to all the other teams who took the time to give us advice, tips and pointers throughout the weekend — thank you. We’ve got plenty of notes, ideas and things to work on before we fire the smokers up again. Also Craig Leathley from Smokn Comrades for putting on an epic event!
And finally, a massive shout-out to our sponsor Creative Sign Co for getting behind us and supporting what we’re doing. We really appreciate having you along for the ride! 🙌
We might not be heading home with the results we wanted, but we’re heading home better BBQ cooks than when we arrived — and that’s a win in itself.
Back to the drawing board, keep learning, keep improving and keep cooking. 🔥🥩
Bring on the next comp! 💨🔥🏆