Traditional Dutch Roof Thatcher Completes Camp Outdoor Kitchen

A visitor from The Netherlands has put the finishing touches on a beautiful outdoor kitchen and dining area constructed from mostly recycled materials at Queenstown’s Top 10 Holiday Park “Creeksyde”.

Leo van Midden is a traditional thatcher who has thatched the building’s roof from locally harvested and dried New Zealand flax to complete a gorgeous shelter for a guest BBQ area. He has been a regular visitor to the holiday park since his daughter worked at Creeksyde some years ago.

Creeksyde is world renowned for its sustainability commitment and was in 2002 the world’s first Green Globe environmentally certified Holiday Park. The park achieved Gold status in 2008. Finding interesting and knowledgeable people to help has always been part of the philosophy of owners Erna and Tony Spijkerbosch.

“We have always been environmentally aware and were committed to sustainable practice well before the term was coined. Part of that is the necessity to find people with skills that we can employ to maintain our environmental policies and philosophies,” says Mrs Spijkerbosch.

“Over the years we have found ways to build or make pretty much everything we need from recycled or reused materials. We have very firm environmental policies which include educating guests on our commitment and their responsibilities.”

The provision of the new guest kitchen area has been subject to these exacting policies - simply buying a BBQ and getting a builder to construct a shelter was not an option.

“We found an old 1800’s coal range a couple of years ago and started thinking about building a sheltered outdoor kitchen. We scavenged some galvanised pipe from the refuse station and collected a whole lot of old valves,” says Mrs Spijkerbosch. “It really all grew from there. We always wanted to have a thatched roof but were scratching our heads on how to go about doing this when we struck a deal with Leo and his brother Jan to complete the work. The ridge cap of the thatched area will be finished with copper from an old hot water cylinder. The flax was gathered and dried by a young chap in Mossburn. The patchwork sides to the building are made of old cast iron radiators and the concrete includes maximum quantities of crushed glass.”

The only new items in the building are the sink tap and the “Creeksyde” branded swivel tractor seats.

Sadly, two of the tractor seats have been stolen from the site and Mrs Spijkerbosch would love to see them returned.

“They have “Creeksyde” written on them, if anyone has seen them, do let us know.”

The finishing touch will be the sealing of a Time Capsule in one of the valves above the dining table.