The Block NZ
's four new homes in the Auckland suburb of Pt Chevalier, everything changes.
For me, the peek behind the big gate at numbers 26 and 28 Newell St begins with a hike. Auckland Council consent rules ban pretty much anyone parking on the street.
I slip past the omnipresent murmuring crowd of fans and behind the gate protecting the show, which screens a couple of weeks after filming, from smartphone-toting spoiler-makers.
A sign to "beware of the wolf" - famously ironhanded site foreman Peter Wolfkamp - warns me to be on my toes. And to cover my toes. Soft office-worker red sandals off, blue gummies on.
And then we're in. The eight contestants and the TV crews are away, but the site is far from empty. My escorts show me the house of Muriwai couple Corban and Alex Walls.
Tradies scurry about everywhere. It smells like varnish and sawdust. We don't see much. Except the big picture: The Block NZ is messy.
Clothes, cushions, cuts of wood, carpet cushion, plastic and food wrappers are piled in already-revealed rooms or passageways. Underfoot it's muddy.
Perhaps the best example of life on The Block NZ is the garages. It seems like yesterday contestants, all vying for the $80,000 crash prize for the house that sells highest above its reserve, were proudly showing off their polished floors.
Now you're lucky if you can see the floor. Next door at Maree Wright and James Steele's, a narrow pathway snakes inside. Something's behind all those cushions.
A ladder on the rail-less staircase must be carefully inched around, before ducking to avoid a smack to the noggin from a plank that must then be vaulted over.
Do I get a prize for this?
Here it is. Maree and James' winning nautical-themed kid's room. It's awesome, especially the boat bed, built by talented Scotsman Martin Laidlaw, although its protruding bow might have your shins disagreeing as you tip-toe from the room after reading The Hungry Caterpillar for the millionth time.
I could go on about the other houses, but it's the same story - lovely, modern rooms with unique interior design overtaken by, for now, stuff.
But what fun. Wolfkamp, for one, is laughing. He watches the show with son Joseph and the 7-year-old loves it.
"After watching the teams do their best [Wolfkamp] impersonations he's started doing it. He's really good."
The Herald on Sunday wasn't the only organisation given a guided tour of The Block NZ set over the past two weeks.
On Wednesday agents from Bayleys, the real estate company that will market and sell all four properties in the show's grand finale next month, were on site.
Other agents are barred by law from saying what the properties might sell for, but a Pt Chevalier Rd home, with four bedrooms and three bathrooms and on a 368sq m site, has an asking price of $1.48 million.
Awaiting the hordes
If at all possible, on yer bike, please.
Thousands of people are expected to descend on Newell St when The Block NZ homes open to the public for the first time on Saturday, between 9am and 3pm.
A traffic management plan includes road closures and parking bans, including Newell St and Walford St between Te Ra Rd and Buxton St from 7am to 4.30pm.
Speed limits of 30km/h will be in place on several nearby streets.
People should walk, bike or take public transport rather than drive, TV3's Amy Prebble said.
Auckland Transport's Mark Hannan said bike racks and a secure area will be available on Walford St, opposite Newell St, between 9am and 3pm.
For fans travelling from further away the best public transport was the Outer Link bus or the No 30 bus from downtown Auckland to Pt Chevalier Rd, a 550m walk from the houses.
Prebble said all four teams will be onsite and fans will only be allowed inside the houses for a short time.
The weather forecast is fine, but if wet the event will be postponed.
