Clodagh Weir, 12, and her four friends dressed as their favourite contestant, Alex Walls.
"She's got such a creative style."
Welcome to Newell St - an otherwise sleepy dead-end road in one of Auckland's hottest city fringe suburbs - median sales price last month: $1.134 million.
But it's a hive of activity when we visit, as media descend on The Block set to inspect four properties lovingly done up by four couples over the past three months for reality TV.
Less than 24 hours out from a mass televised open home, the site is buzzing with public relations staff and tradesmen making last-minute finishing touches. Ready lawn is carefully laid.
Painters touch up skirting boards and a skill saw slices through the morning birdsong. Tough-nut site foreman Peter "the wolf" Wolfcamp prowls near a portable green loo with "GIRLS" emblazoned on the door in red masking tape.
We have 15 minutes with each Block couple, seated at a wooden dining table in house two - painstakingly renovated by South Aucklanders Maree Wright and James Steele.
The eight contestants, who are vying for top dollar and big prize money when the properties go under the hammer, have scrubbed up well now the homes are virtually complete.
There's agreement The Block experience was hard and exhausting, with lack of sleep cited as the most demanding aspect.
"It's definitely real how little sleep you get," Mr Steele says.
"Especially Wednesday to Friday - it's verging on nothing."
Mr Steele, 28, a QV worker, and Ms Wright, 27, an events manager, own their first home - a bungalow in Papatoetoe.
They say they had a "practice run" on a bedroom before coming on the programme but now plan to "re-do" it.
Like the others, they've poured their heart, sweat and tears into their three-bedroom Block house, and Ms Wright says it would be strange leaving the chaotic set and returning to normal life.
"We're going back to keyboards rather than power tools - it's going to be very quiet."
Police officer Damo Neal, 36, and wife Jo, 34, a self-employed designer, are proud of their efforts, which prove what they're capable of "if you're dedicated and work your arse off", Mr Neal says.
The Feilding couple own a 1906 house and plan to start renovating the property on their return home.
"It's the most intense 12 weeks you could ever experience, [then] going back to a community that's so laid back they're almost falling asleep".
Ms Neal puts it like this: "It's so hard to turn off. I'm still dreaming about painting every night."
Christchurch couple Quinn and Ben Alexandre, who own a two-bedroom unit in Bromley, have had a tough run, with Ms Alexandre, 26, announcing she was pregnant during the show.
She says morning sickness made life tough and she also struggled with fatigue.
"On TV it looks like she didn't do much but she did a lot," Mr Alexandre, 30, says, adding: "She definitely pulled her weight."
The final couple are Auckland wildcards Corban and Alex Walls. It emerged earlier that 32-year-old Mr Walls, an engineer, and Ms Walls, 29, a fashion buyer, had built and designed a high-spec home above Muriwai Beach. They have gone on to win numerous room reveals and challenges.
The pair are now homeless and "living under a bridge", Ms Walls says. They're actually crashing with her parents but have no permanent home and she has no job.
They hope a professional couple with an eye for design will pay top dollar for their hard work.
Bayleys began marketing the properties this week but is coy about speculating on their potential values.
Spokesman Hayden Stanaway said each property had been carefully planned to capitalise on the location.
"Newell St's proximity to the central city and coastline is a big drawcard, and the quiet cul-de-sac setting and community-orientated neighbourhood is attractive to families."
QV figures show the median property value in Pt Chevalier was $1,003,150 on October 1. In the current market, the four Block homes are likely to fetch in excess of this.
-with additional reporting by Cherie Howie, Herald on Sunday
