OUR BBQ WOODS AND BRAZIER WOODS

Insist on the good wood.

Specialising in native hardwoods, we offer a variety of BBQ wood splits and chunks for ‘low and slow’ smoking including Pohutukawa, Oak, Manuka and Puriri, while Gum and Totara are perfect for the brazier or log burner.

Fruit woods like Apple, Cherry, Feijoa, Grape, Guava, Peach, Pear and Plum are seasonally sourced and lend a delicate smokey note to BBQ, while Olive is a little fuller and Black Walnut brings a rich and strong flavour profile.

While the best wood for smoking depends on the BBQ you’re using, the type of meat you’re cooking, and your own personal preference, quality always matters. Just because seasoning is a preservation process doesn’t mean you can use any spongy old plank!

We deliver crisp, punchy, flavoursome logs and cuts, aiming to expand people’s palates and demonstrate the difference quality wood makes.

EXPERTLY SEASONED

Perfectly seasoned, ethically sourced BBQ smoking and cooking wood from local family in Auckland. Even our humour is beautifully dry. Just because seasoning is a preservation process doesn’t mean you can use any old spongey old plank. We want to give our customers crisp, punchy and flavoursome logs and cuts. Most of all, we want to expand people’s palates and prove that good wood can make all the difference.

“the results are simply amazing.”

— M. Wright, Herne Bay, Auckland

“the flavour that it imparts is incredible!”

— M. Sheehan, Green Bay, Auckland

The story of a lifelong wood obsession.

I’m the Urban Lumberjack, and I’ve loved chopping wood my whole life. My earliest memory, where I guess it all started, is visiting my Grandad in Upper Hutt at the age of four. His house backed onto the Tararua Ranges, and had trees everywhere. I had been watching the woodchopping at the local AMP show, and wanted to be like the legendary Sonny Bolstad.

I begged Grandad for a week to let me chop down a tree, telling him I was big enough to wield his axe (or worst case, his tomahawk). When we were due to leave and I still hadn’t chopped down my tree, I took matters into my own hands. I grabbed the axe, sneaked out, and went to work on the trunk of some poor tree in the backyard. I remember thinking it was weird as I chopped away that there weren’t many chunks and chips – just dust, and massive wetas.

Finally I bludgeoned through the trunk and was about to yell “Timber” when the tree just fell off the stump, landed flush on the ground, and remained standing. The tree was a punga, and to this day (forty years on) I feel ripped off!

As an adult, any opportunity to get the chainsaw and axes out is welcomed with open arms. All the dramas of life seem to melt away as you end up with a pile of wood to stack, season and find a home for. Every little nook and cranny at my house is full of wood. My wife thinks I’m crazy as we don’t have a fire.

Fortunately, my love of firewood has also allowed me to explore my other great love – BBQ.

I love the idea that much of the wood I gather, split and stack would have been left to rot – or worse, mulched. When I sell it on to the New Zealand BBQ community, it's like the phoenix – on its way back to providing enjoyment and good times while adding amazing flavour to great cuts of meat.

Knowing that wood is the very beginning of people’s good times inspires me. The experience of starting the fire, cracking a beer and turning out mouthwateringly tender cuts never gets old. Having my mates over to assist and the local takeaway store on speed dial in case I stuff it up is all part of the community aspect that I love too.

I’ve come to embrace this state, as I’ve learned there are plenty of people around with the same problem. The Urban Lumberjack is me, the Urban Lumberjack is you.

Welcome to the obsession!