Pioneer Pies

Tyrone's Story

Customers seek out Tyrone Campbell’s artisan pies from his distinctive truck at Grey Lynn Farmers Market, on Sunday mornings.

Where did you grow up?

Wainuiomata – I tell people that the hills brought me up because I spent so many hours exploring, mountain biking, and building huts. I also have lots of great memories of the coast, and swimming in local rivers.

Where did you go after Wainuiomata?

I got the travel bug and went exploring around the world, working in over 30 different jobs during my ten years of backpacking. I worked in all kinds of roles, from hospitality to travel, from butcheries to bakeries, and I even worked for a sports company in the Welsh valleys.

Are there any favourite places that you visited?

Scotland - that’s where I met my beautiful wife, Carla. It was while camping at Glencoe in the Scottish Highlands, in the same spot my ancestors had once walked, that I came up with the idea to start Global Games.

What is Global Games?

It is a social enterprise that runs multi-code festivals, giving young people opportunities through sport and travel - opportunities that are normally reserved for representative players or sporting heroes. After a couple years of downtime, thanks to Covid, I’m very excited that we are back up and running festivals across the country, including a Girls Junior Rugby Festival at North Harbour Stadium during the Woman's Rugby World Cup this October - it is keeping me super busy.

How do pies fit into this?

I’ve always thought of myself as a pie connoisseur. When I started Global Games, I travelled around the country visiting lots of sports clubs, to get them to participate, and I made a point of trying out pies everywhere I went.

How did you make the leap from eating to making pies?

We took over a failing cafe in Albany, but the first few years were awful, with pies being the only thing that did well. Wanting a quieter life, we moved to Matatā, where we teamed up with the sourdough bakers at Bread Asylum. We made pies there too and ended up busier than before, selling pies all over the country. 

You’re not in Matatā now

No – we are based at our boutique bakery in old Albany village. After thinking about our values (people, community, family, sustainability), we decided to downscale to focus on quality rather than quantity. We still source ingredients direct from the best farmers in the country, building on long- established relationships, but we gave up selling wholesale.

How does Grey Lynn Farmers Market fit into this?

We use Carl’s Nature’s Corner eggs in our pies - Carl suggested we come here. I love it because it is a relaxing time for me after a full-on week. It's a very social market with lots of regulars.  I am enjoying getting to know everyone - I love chatting with customers and other interesting stallholders 

Tell me more about the pies

We are very proud of the awards that our pies have won. We are one of very few pie makers to have won awards in the meat, gluten-free, and now vegan categories, having won awards from the vegan society. Some of our gluten-free customers at Grey Lynn have told me that ours is the first pie that they have been able to eat in years! We do our best to cater for everyone, pies are a national dish after all. 

Lots of our customers are doing their weekly food shop. Can your pies help with that?

Absolutely! We always bring cold pies that people can heat and eat at home. If people pre-order at one market, then I can bring a family-sized pie to the next market for them.  They can order any of the forty-ish flavours we make, but I usually bring the most popular seven flavours to the market.

Do you ever get to relax?

Not really – we have three children, aged 7, 9, and 11 years. Our favourite family thing to do is to explore the many playgrounds around the region, and around the country. One of our favourites is Western Park - our kids love the big slides. Whenever we’re travelling near Wellington, we make a trip to Rainbow Park in Levin, which is one of the best playgrounds in the country. 

As published in Ponsonby News : August 2022