The event is in its fifth year and has become a popular staple in Central Otago’s calendar.
Growers and visitors came from all over, including Alexandra, Wānaka and Gibbston, many bringing olives picked fresh that morning.
Early-season frosts had caused some anxiety, but COOG chairman Michael Hope was confident the fruit had held.
Olives were a hardy crop that had weathered centuries of difficult conditions, and while the Central Otago season had been cold, it had not been damaging, Mr Hope said.
Mr Hope and wife Janette own Awanui Olive Oil in Clyde and are key organisers of the event.
During the day’s proceedings the press was operated by Steve Morris, who runs Olive Press Central Otago Ltd alongside wife Olivia.
The operation runs at 500kg per hour — a significant step up from the 150kg-per-hour machine it started with. Olives are crushed, then moved through several stages, including malaxation where the paste is agitated to help release its oil, before a high-speed decanter spinning around 5000rpm does the separating.
"An angle grinder travels about 8000rpm, so to work with this speed, its definitely getting the them moving," Mr Morris said.
"You have to work with our land and climate too, we’ve got to grow a cool climate olive down here, compared to up north. So it’s just adjusting your growing to the conditions you’re in."
New this year was a formal olive oil tasting presentation, led by committee member Andrea Barzotto, who established his grove outside Clyde in 2018 and now tends more than 100 trees alongside wife Gretl.
Mr and Mrs Barzotto completed an olive oil masterclass in Italy and brought that knowledge to the day.
"The taste and the freshness is everything. You wouldn’t pair a pepper olive oil with a rocket salad, because they both have that sharp element. You’d want something creamy."
Even vanilla ice cream could benefit from a drizzle of extra virgin olive oil on top, Mr Barzotto said.
"You try that and the tasting sensation will be just wow."
Their own oil took a silver medal at last year’s national awards, and Mr Barzotto will sit on the judging panel at this year’s New Zealand Olive Oil Awards in Masterton.
Mr and Mrs Hope will enter that same competition.
Local growers across the region had been performing strongly at a national level, and Mr Hope noted that New Zealand olive oil was increasingly competitive internationally, growers placing in competitions in Europe and New York.
Wānaka local Pip Golden was visiting the event with 4-year-old granddaughter Harriet.
"I just love the community aspect of it," she said.
That people have gone and organised all this, and it doesn’t matter how little you have. You can just watch them being pressed, it’s brilliant."
Alongside the pressing and tasting, the day offered food and drink stands, tree care advice, a sales table stocked with oils in a range of varieties and sizes and olive-specific fertiliser.
The atmosphere was relaxed and sociable, with hot soup to take the bite out of the frosty start.
The committee hosts events year-round, such as pruning seminars and its popular Long Lunch, held this year at the Lake Dunstan Boat Club.
The pressing day remained the centrepiece: open to anyone with an olive or a tree, or just a "love of anything to do with it", that was what the day was all about, Mr Hope said.
