3rd Annual Jack Daniels BBQ Taupo New Zealand 2009
Wow! What a weekend. It started with the informal pre BBQ dinner at Ploughman’s in Taupo on Friday night. Well, it really started on Thursday night when Moz landed in NZ and Clint had drinks ready at 12.00am. Then on Friday afternoon a heap of people arrived at my place and had a look around. I’m sure I had a set of Motlow’s before they arrived but they are no longer there. Ah well! Lol.
Thanks the Shane and Ang (Jacktembernz) for arranging the pre dinner, the meals were great and they even got some GJ and SB in for the event. After dinner we headed back to our camp ground where the staff had put us back in our own little village. The small talked continued until the cold wind took its toll and a few of the last remaining crowd did the conga back to bed. Moz need a Simm card to call home so Shane Shane Simm Card was invented. (Shane Simm is a real person and it’s a private joke that’s too hard to translate). Lol.
Saturday bought the remaining collectors to the campground for registration. A few others went into town for a quick bit of shopping. By 12.00pm everyone had arrived and we started the first event. “The Amazing Race”. Three teams of five were created and each team had an independent leader to ensure all tasks were done.
Firstly, the teams selected one member to play pinball, the highest score started the second activity which helped to seed the teams. Mike’s team led the way with a great score.
The second event was a mini putt challenge, each person in the team had seven golf balls in which to get a hole in one. If a hole in one was achieved the team got there first clue from their leader. 28 balls later team one got there clue, 28 balls later team 2 got their clue and only a few balls later Shane hit a hole in one for team 3. You would have thought he had won lotto, but credit given, it was a great shot.
The first clue the teams got was in code. A=26, b=25 and so on. Each team had to figure out the clue which told them to go to the information centre in town and get a phamlet on trout fishing and buy a post card. Once this was achieved the team leaders gave the 2nd clue out, they had to find the Noodle Canteen and above the shop was the name of a mortgage broker, they had to write that down and then the got the next clue.
The next task was to head to the lake and pick up 4 items from the lake front, put them in a jar and then get the next clue. The next clue was a word jumble which would take them a short drive out of town to a Honey centre where they had to try four types of honey and then buy the cheapest gift from the shop. After this the final task was given.
One member of the team had to do act out a charade “Drive to Liqourland and buy a Jack mini” This proved to be quite funny as other people at the shop wondered what was going on.
The early teams at liqourland asked the shop owners to hide all the minis and say they were sold out. Another team told the shop assistant to serve really really slow.
I had to laugh at that one.
Then it was a mad rush back to the campground where Team 1 were declared the winners. Thanks to Mike, Ang and Melinda for being the team leaders.
The next event was the Jack Daniels Bake Off, there were two sections, a sweet and a savoury. People had 34 minutes to add the finishing touches to their entries before my dad and camp cook / Bake off judge checked out the entries. It was a great event, I won the Savoury section with JD meatballs and Shane/Ang won the sweet section.
Time was on our side so the trade table were laid out early while the BBQ was being cooked. Much interest was generated in a few great items.
The way it works is that the seller sets a reserve and passes the master list to the master list collator. People can then place a bid on a bid sheet. The person with the closest bid the to reserve is given the opportunity to pay the reserve price. If the reserve is $100. Person A bids $95 and Person B bids $130. Person A gets the chance to pay $100. This stops people with big wallets from getting everything.
Maree and Melinda were very successful on the night picking up some great items.
Thanks to all those people who bought items along and who also made purchases.
After the auction, private deals are allowed to take place and it is the time to pick up bargains.
The BBQ was ready mid afternoon and everyone got stuck into some great food.
Special mention to JEEPEE. He sent over a special package of his secret peanut sauce for Clint to make up. It was by far out of this world. A huge thanks JeePee and Judith for sending that package over, it even had some Drop for my lovely wife.
After this we had prize giving. Moz was thanked for making the effort and was presented with a couple of gifts. The cooks were given a plaque for doing the BBQ. Team one took a prize for winning the Amazing race. Duane was thanked for assisting with the various jobs he was part off and Jak the JD boss in NZ was thanked for the sponsorship of product and merchandise for the event. Jak is a good supporter of collectors in NZ and we are looking forward to the possibility of buying a barrel of SB for New Zealand. We all chipped in for a gift to show our thanks and we will present it to Jak in the near future.
Congratulations to Jak and his wife Maria who had a set of twins. We look forward to seeing you all in the future, all the best. (Jak declined the offer of Tokboy as a name for one of the babies), no hard feelings mate. Lol.
Thanks to Corey from Liquorland in Auckland who came down to support this event and to Steve for getting the hats and shirts done. It was great to see new faces with Bill and Lois making their first BBQ and Ric returning after missing last years one.
Thanks must also go out to the regulars who make the effort every year to be here and contribute to the event being a success. My enjoyment comes from spending time with each of you and seeing that you are having a good time. If I have missed anyone, please accept this as thanks.
It was time for the group photo and Martyn our resident photographer was onto it snapping shots throughout the weekend. We look forward to his pics because we all love pics. Lol.
Later on in the night, Steve put on a Chicken and a Beef roast in the smoker and around 9.00pm ish it was ready. If anyone has seen a nature programme where a pride of lions get together and eat an animal they have just caught, that is what it looked like seeing these two hunks of meat get devoured. They were very nice.
Sunday was about coffee, clean ups and farewells. It is the downside of the weekend having to say good byes, but it was one hell of a weekend.
This is my own version of events and this may differ from other reports. But it’s the way I see it and I welcome the others to fill in the gaps I may have missed.
You are a great group of people and it means so much getting together, we would go out of our way to help each other and that is a true testament of being a Jack collector.
Until next time, safe travels and keep well.
Take care and all the best for 2009.
Tokboy Out!
