You gotta see this:

Christmas in the Southern Hemisphere takes place in summer, of course, so it is not surprising that Kiwis often celebrate the holiday with a barbecue. Last night we attended our first such event, organized by the Oamaru Rotary chapter (which I joined a few months ago). The barbecue was held at the “tin shed” belonging to one of the members, which is located deep in the countryside outside of Oamaru. The directions were a bit worrisome, since they included advice that, despite rumors to the contrary, the road could be traversed without a four-wheel drive vehicle. When we got to the road in question we agreed that a 4WD was not strictly speaking necessary, but it sure would be advisable in the event the weather was at all inclement.

As luck would have it we had a rather nice evening for it, although there was a bit of drizzle at one stage. The shed truly is a tin shed, though it’s a rather storied tin shed, since NZ TV One has come to film a group of friends of the owners’ son meeting there to watch the Rugby World Cup, and back in the days when satellite TV was very expensive in Oamaru, the tin shed was the only spot around where you could access the Sky channels for free (or something).

The meal was a rather typical summertime barbecue, starting out with whitebait patties cooked up on the grill (which went some way toward explaining why all BBQs here are sold with a grate on one side and a griddle on the other of the firebox). After that we had more familiar BBQ dishes, like burgers, franks, and coleslaw. Several people asked if we were able to handle food like this, coming from the exalted kitchen of PYB, as though we always eat gourmet food, but in fact it was tasty and we had a great time hanging out with our friends (and we got three bookings out of it, including a rehearsal dinner for the wedding of one member’s daughter, and an annual general meeting event).

The setting could not be beat, with amazing views over the valley. See for yourself in the gallery below, which includes two photos of flowers in the PYB garden:

Delphinium

Watsonia

Jock and Blair at the Tin Shed

Peter cooking dinner

View over the valley

Another view of the valley

Rolling hills on the way home

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