Smell My Pits BBQ

🔥 King of the Mountain 7 Wrap Up 🔥

Another King of the Mountain done and dusted, and what an awesome weekend it was!
Firstly, a huge thanks to Craig Leathley for once again agreeing to run the event 😛

As our home competition, it's always a highlight on the calendar, and it was great to have 20 of the best BBQ teams from around New Zealand right here in the province battling it out for the weekend.

Our results were:

🐔 11th Chicken
🍖 12th Ribs
🐷 15th Pork
🥩 6th Brisket
🏆 10th Overall

One of the standout initiatives this year, in keeping with the event's chosen charity - Big Brothers Big Sisters, was the mentoring programme that paired newer and developing teams with a Top 10 team.

We were fortunate enough to be paired up with our neighbours for the weekend, Smokey Fish Bar-Bee-Q from Christchurch. The lads were fantastic to work alongside, incredibly generous with their knowledge and advice, and helped us lift our game in several areas. Thanks team!!
We came away with plenty of ideas, some valuable lessons, and confidence that we're heading in the right direction.

We're really pleased with the improvements we've made and are already looking forward to putting what we've learned into practice at the next comp.

A massive thank you to all the local businesses, sponsors, volunteers and individuals who get behind this event every year. Special thanks to naming rights sponsor Primo, along with our own sponsors Smokn Comrades, Pace Power & Air, and Pace Engineering Ltd for their continued support. Events like this simply don't happen without businesses and people backing them.

Congratulations to Cook Cartel on an incredible 4-peat Grand Championship, and to Rum and Que for taking out Reserve Grand Champion. Outstanding effort from both teams.

Thanks again to everyone involved for making it another fantastic weekend of BBQ, competition, learning, and good times.

Bring on the next one! 🔥🍖🥩

🔥 Primo King of the Mountain 7 🔥

Smell My Pits BBQ is back at King of the Mountain for another weekend of competition BBQ.

Camp is set up, pits are running and we’re ready to put some meat on and see how we go.

Always a great event with some of the best teams in the country — looking forward to a good weekend.

Round 2 of the NZBA at Brewtown Upper Hutt wrapped up for Smell My Pits BBQ.

We finished with 4th in Ribs, 3rd in Pork and 9th in Brisket, with good old chicken not quite landing for us this time, leaving us 10th overall.

The top quality Wichita Packing Ribs were hitting once again with consistent top 5’s

Thanks to Pace Power & Air, Smokn Comrades, and The Corner for the ongoing support.

Next stop for us will be King of the Mountain BBQ Competition in August

🔥 Smell My Pits BBQ – Brewtown 🍻🔥

The Smell My Pits BBQ crew will be firing up the pits this Saturday at Bogan Day Out at Brewtown, competing in Round 2 of the New Zealand Barbecue Alliance Championship Series.

We’ll be going head-to-head with some of the best BBQ teams in the country, chasing those calls and cooking up some serious low & slow. 🍖🔥

A huge thanks as always to the legends who help get us to the line:

🔥Pace Power & Air
🔥Smokn Comrades
🔥The Corner

We couldn’t do it without your support.

If you’re heading along to Bogan Day Out, come find us, say g’day, and enjoy the smell of some proper competition BBQ in the air. 🤘

Awesome weekend done and dusted at the Kotare BBQ Mania 7 in Taupo.

Despite the weather, it didn’t spoil what was a great couple of days catching up with the NZ BBQ Community and knocking up some respectable boxes.

A huge thanks to Mandy & Morgan Brunswick for organising this well run event. To all the event sponsors for their support and to Chris Tolcher and his team for looking after proceedings.

Results:
🍗 Chicken - 11th
🍖 Pork Ribs - 8th Equal
🐷 Pork 2 - 22nd
🐮 Brisket - 12th

Unfortunately the Pork result dragged the average down a little to wind up 15th overall (23 teams) we were happy with our box but it didn’t hit on the day

Congratulations to Troy from BEERS Championship BBQ (GC) and Scott from
Smokey Fish (RGC) - clean sweep from the South Islanders this weekend

Lastly a special thank you to the sponsors and supporters for helping us along the way

Craig Leathley from Smokn Comrades for sponsoring our epic Wichita Packing Ribs. We have landed 4x consecutive top 10 results with these quality ribs including twice in the top 5.

Pace Power & Air
Pace Engineering

We are on the hunt for more great sponsors to partner with to help us step things up a notch and keep the passion alive, if you are keen to jump on board and see how we can collectively promote your brand or product we would love to talk!

🔥GAME DAY🔥

🔥 BBQ MANIA 7 🔥

Smell My Pits BBQ Team is ready to roll at Barbecue Mania 2025 in Taupō this weekend, 4th – 5th October. With 3 internationally sanctioned competitions across 2 days, it’s going to be one epic battle of smoke, coals, and flavour.

We’ll be up against some of NZ’s best pitmasters – all chasing that coveted BBQ Mania Championship Belt 🏆🥩🔥

Come down to Great Lake Holiday Park, Acacia Bay Rd, Taupō – entry is FREE! Gates open:
👉 Saturday 10am – 4pm
👉 Sunday 9am – 2pm

🍖 Food trucks, coffee carts, stalls, demos and plenty of BBQ action.

A huge thanks goes to the sponsors that help us get here

Craig Leathley
Smokn Comrades
The Corner
Pace Power & Air
Pace Engineering

🔥 Primo King of the Mountain 6 Wrap-Up 🔥

Well…. King of the Mountain 6 was a real mixed bag for us!

🐔 23rd in Chicken (dead last! 🤯 still scratching our heads on that one)
🍖 8th = in Ribs
🐖 11th = in Pork,
🐮 19th in Brisket
21st overall

A massive thanks to Craig Leathley and the Smokn Comrades crew for putting on another awesome event.

Big congratulations to Cook Cartel on taking out GC, and to all the other teams who got a walk – well deserved! 👏

And of course, a huge shout-out to all the event sponsors who make these comps possible

Thanks to all those who have helped us get to this one

Pace Power & Air
Pace Engineering Ltd
Smok’n Comrades
The Corner

🔥 Back on the Grills This Weekend 🔥

After a short break since Meatstock, the Smell My Pits BBQ team is back in action at the Smokn Comrades presents Primo King of the Mountain BBQ Competition at East End Reserve, New Plymouth.

🥩 We’re firing up for SCA Steak on Friday

🔥 Saturday it’s time for the NZBA Low & Slow, where we’ll be joining around teams from around the country battling it out over brisket, pork, ribs and chicken. It's always a great comp, and we’re stoked to be part of it again.

📍 East End Reserve, Nobbs Line – New Plymouth
📅 Friday (SCA Steak) + Saturday (NZBA)

Massive thanks to our sponsors and those who have helped with backing the team:

Pace Power & Air
Pace Engineering Ltd
Smok’n Comrades
The Corner

Back home after an epic Meatstock 2025!

Team Smell My Pits put in a solid effort across the weekend handing in 5 high quality boxes in a very tough field of 60 competition teams from New Zealand and visiting teams from Australia, Cook Islands & USA

Results:
Chicken 🍗 : 27th
Pork Ribs 🐖: 13th
Pork 🐷: 28th
Lamb 🐑: 20th
Brisket 🐮 : 41st

We were very pleased with our Pork Ribs with what we felt was perfect texture & taste as well as our lamb

We were a little disappointed with the brisket result despite being very happy with our texture and the quality of our hand in it

Overall Placing for the weekend: 28th from 60 teams

Awesome to compete with a great bunch of lads.

Congratulations to Back to Back Grand Champions Rum and Que and RGC’s Cook Cartel

Huge thanks to sponsors who have helped us this weekend

Pace Power & Air
Smokn Comrades