Green eyes, long hair and a smile are building blocks for success
One pairing already seems to have an edge as four teams are set to duke it out on season nine of The Block NZ. David Skipwith reports.
Handy with a nail gun? Excellent DIY chops? A keen eye for interior design? You’d have thought any or all of these were the prerequisites for excelling at The Block NZ reality TV contest – but challenge host Shelley Ferguson has her finger on other attributes when it comes to Team Blue’s Tim Cotton and Arthur Gillies.
The best mates, both 26, have the least renovation experience of all the teams but Ferguson reckon’s the country will back them.
‘‘They’ve just got beautiful souls, they are such cool boys – surfers, super chill, but absolute eye candy. I can tell they are going to be favourites with New Zealand,’’ raves Ferguson, who returns to the TV3 show for her sixth year.
‘‘I walked into their house the other day and Arty was there with his big green eyes and long hair, and his jawline and smile, and he was strumming away on a guitar, and I thought ‘here we go New Zealand’.’’
The early praise may work against Team Blue giving the other teams plenty of motivation to beat them where it counts – in the building and design stakes, and the fight to earn the highest profit and walk away with the $100,000 prize.
Filming on season nine got off to a false start last year when Covid-19 forced a shutdown on-site in Auckland’s inner-west suburb of Point Chevalier. But the teams will have plenty of space to work with, as the show returns to large houses that span 230 square metres and boast atrium entrances, doublelevel lounge studs, second-storey balconies with cityscape views, and outdoor spaces.
‘‘We have these big beautiful homes in Point Chev,’’ says Ferguson. ‘‘And no matter what the team’s look is, the bones and the structure of those houses are already stunning.’’
It was also in Point Chevalier six years ago that Alex and Corban Walls claimed the win with a whopping $307,000 profit, and, with local knowledge on Team Blue’s side, Cotton and Gillies reckon they can emulate that feat. ‘‘We understand the local market and what they are after. Being from the area we feel as though our design ethos and style will appeal to the Point Chev buyer,’’ says Cotton.
Team Yellow will bring some southern grit to the table with brothers Dylan, 30, and Keegan, 25, Crawford hailing from Greymouth. Dylan studied architecture before becoming a ‘‘styley’’ banker in Auckland and Keegan is billed as a ‘‘mellow builder who has never left the West Coast’’.
‘‘The two brothers are complete opposites,’’ Ferguson explains. ‘‘Dylan is quite creative, loves colour, is always on time, and then Keegan just wants to live in a shed in the bush, so their dynamic is quite fun.’’
Team Purple is ‘‘domestic engineer’’ Janah Kingi, 39, and real estate agent Rachel Martin , 42 – two ‘‘fun mums’’ from Papamoa.
No strangers to building sites, they’ve been renovating their own homes and have some inside knowledge as both their husbands are builders.
‘‘Janah and Rach are doing a great job, because it’s tricky – all those tools, getting on the skill saw and nail gun, and climbing up ladders – so they’re just having a
hilarious time trying to master all of that,’’ says Ferguson.
Team Orange is made up of Meg Lean, 38, and husband and builder Dan, 46, who together own and operate a construction company.
This supposedly ‘‘friendly couple’’ are confident they have the skills to come out on top, but warn their rivals that if someone stabs them in the back ‘‘they won’t get a chance to do it twice’’.
Ferguson insists it’s all peace and love between the four teams – at least for now.
‘‘In previous years we’ve had a few people who have made life pretty tricky for the others, and they are all just getting on hilariously, so we haven’t really got that vibe yet.
‘‘Although we’re not that far in, so we know it can be perfectly nice at the start and things can change. But they are having a great time together, and it’s really funny to watch, and we haven’t got any big negativity or big egos so far.’’
‘‘In previous years we’ve had a few people who have made life pretty tricky for the others, and they are all just getting on hilariously, so we haven’t really got that vibe yet.’’ Shelley Ferguson