I grew up in a family that loved camping and spent many of my pre-teen summers camped on the side of the beautiful lake Te Anau in the Fiordland region of New Zealand. 

Camping enables you to experience and connect with nature in a deep and profound way.  Whether in a tent, a hammock or under a tarp, the beauty, sounds and smells of nature are immersive.  These "joys" make up for the often uncomfortable nights' sleep, cramped living space and hassles of preparing meals from multiple boxes, containers and makeshift work surfaces. 

Wanting to share the "joy of camping" with my wife, a lifelong camping-avoider, I knew I was in for a challenge.

To win my wife over, three conditions would need to be met.

- We needed a spacious, easy to set-up tent and one that preferably looked good.

- We needed a comfortable night's sleep.

- And we absolutely needed meal times to be hassle free, convenient and easy.  

Getting the right tent was simple as we quickly agreed that a 4m bell tent ticked all of the boxes.

A good night's sleep, thanks to advances in technology, meant that a super-plush self-inflating air bed ensured a warm and comfortable sleep.

Solving the cooking problem however, was not so simple.  There simply wasn't an off the shelf option I could find in New Zealand that ticked all of the right boxes.  It needed to be quick to setup, convenient to store, and if possible, could be stored fully stocked and ready to go. What I did find however, was an idea that possibly dates back to the days of the US migration to the west coast.  Chuck boxes as they were sometimes called, provided a portable kitchen for the cowboys and pioneers venturing across the country. With this for inspiration, I set to designing and building a camp kitchen over the winter of 2021.

The grand reveal and the big test, came on Christmas of 2021, with our first camping trip being to the very scenic Purakaunui Bay in the Catlins.  The camp kitchen, or Chester, as we came to call it by the end of the trip, was a complete success.  Setup was a breeze, the built-in work surfaces meant all food could be prepped on the camp kitchen, the stove was at an optimal operating height, and all of the cutlery, crockery, utensils and condiments were right at our fingertips.  It was a complete game changer.  My only regret was that I didn't make one thirty years earlier.

From our own experiences and enjoyment of using Chester, and with the encouragment of many fellow campers who have popped over to our campsites for a natter and to check him out, we're now working with a very well established Dunedin company renowned for the high quality furniture it makes to make Chester available to the campers of New Zealand.