Words by Sam.

I boarded my flight up to Auckland feeling pretty nervous and while I really wanted to win the National comp, I still felt really proud to have taken the top spot in the Southern region.

I arrived at Auckland Airport and for the first time ever was greeted by a Corporate Cabs driver with my name on a sign - I excitedly jumped in the car and was taken to the 5 Star Pullman Hotel where I would spend the next three nights for the duration of the trip. I flew up on the Wednesday and Bryce, Denham and my mum and dad would be joining the following day - flights and accommodation paid for by Master Builders. I arrived at the hotel, had a short nap and then made my way to the briefing for the following day’s competition. Here I met the rest of the competitors and quickly realised they all were all a bunch of good dudes (as well as Hayley from Auckland). There was the compulsory safety briefing and we were then quickly shown a 3D render of the project. Needless to say we were all pretty surprised by the size and complexity of the build. I tried not to let it worry me but that was easier said than done. 

From here we went out for dinner as a group with the four judges and project coordinators. We went to Macs Brewbar in Britomart, all food and drinks paid for once again by Master Builders, a trend that continued throughout the trip. 

Waking up the next morning I made my way to the buffet for breakfast with the group. A few hours to kill and then we were driven to the North Shore Events Centre where we’d be competing. We had another briefing and then we were into it. They gave us 10 minutes to read the plans where we weren’t allowed to touch our tools. But the reality was that no one touched anything for another half hour after that anyway, it took the long to get your head around the project. 

I made a cutting list and not long after made a start. My idea was to start from the bottom up, standing the frames before working on the planter boxes either side. This was rather convenient as it allowed to me to put off building the roof. At this stage I still hadn’t worked out how to get the overall length and position of the bird’s mouth cut. They strategically give you minimal dimensions so you’re left to calculate a lot of the cuts. Maybe it was the stress of the competition but I just couldn’t work out the trig I knew I needed to work out the length - it wasn’t hard maths but it just felt like my brain wasn’t working. In the end I drew it all out on the plywood roofing sheets and then it started to come together, this process did eat up valuable time however. 

The first two hours of the build were nice and quiet as they hadn’t opened the doors to the convention but shortly after people started piling in. It was nice to have the support but honestly I barely noticed anyway as I pretty focused on the job. Bryce and Denham arrived with my dad, they’d all just flown into Auckland. Unfortunately, we were under pretty strict instructions not to talk to anyone in the crowd in case they gave us instruction. I did stop to chat to the kindergarten kids who arrived to cheer me on however, that was cool. All the projects were being donated and the kids from Lollipops where my build was going were there with signs they’d made, “Sam’s the Man”, and “Sam’s the #1 Builder” - it was very cute.

Three hours in - and almost half way through the build - I started to realise I might be getting pretty tight to finish. It’d been all good since the gun went off but I knew I was going to speed up if I was gonna have a chance. We’d been told that our best chance of scoring well would be to get as many elements of the build completed as we could. Obviously quality was important but we couldn’t afford too long on anything. From then until the next break I worked tirelessly, it was unbelievably hot and the sweat was pouring off me. It was physically and mentally exhausting but I knew from the first break that everyone was doing it pretty tough. I got the roof done and was pretty pleased but was also very aware of how much I had to go. 

I upped the pace and invariably made a few mistakes in doing so. Nothing catastrophic - but enough to slow me down as I had to go back over things twice. A good example of this was the decking boards where, to save time, I butted them up against the guard of the drop saw after I measured my first board. The problem with that was that I was a few millimetres out between boards and it didn’t look to flash. I ended up having to fix them down before scribing a line and re-cutting them all, wasting what little time I had left towards the end.

With an hour and half to go we stopped for our mandatory last break. Knowing how much I still had to go I was more than happy to cut the break to 10 minutes to get more time on the build. That last hour and half flew by and in no time at all they were counting down the last few minutes. I was rushing right up until the end and while I didn’t get it completely finished there was a huge relief to be done. It was so incredibly intense that’s it hard to explain. We then waited for the projects to be judged before we all jumped in, along with whoever else was still spectating, to get each build completed before they were taken away.

We got back to the hotel about 10pm and luckily they kept the hotel restaurant open for us. By then I was pretty happy to be back in bed as we all had our interviews the following day - lucky for me I was last meaning I had until 3pm to get ready. Unlucky for me I had until 3pm to fret. 

I’ll rush this part as this has already gone on a little long but my interview went well the next day. I was nervous for it as it was a 45-minute sit down with four experienced judges but there was really no need to be - they were such nice guys and in the end it just like chatting to your mates. I walked out of the interview feeling better about my chances in the comp but I wouldn’t know until later that night where we had the awards night and gala dinner.

I didn’t get the win and I was disappointed but in hindsight I do feel really proud to have made it to the nationals. Didn’t quite have my day but that’s okay, it was an amazing experience and awesome to share it with everyone involved.