Peter Wolfkamp is best known as The Wolf, the site foreman on The Block NZ. He’s been on every series of the show since it began in 2012, but before that, he was well established as a builder and a radio host, aka the Resident Builder, on Newstalk ZB. Peter explains how he’s managed to juggle several careers, and why he’s got a bee in his bonnet about tradies being respected. (You can also catch up on episodes of Wolfkamp's Resident Builder show at the end of the article.)
Which came first, building or broadcasting?
Building. I started in 1987. I come from a family that has always made things. My mum, Anneke, was a seamstress and my dad, Piet, was a blacksmith to start with, then when they emigrated to New Zealand from the Netherlands. He had a metal fabrication business, making things like barstools. We worked in the factory as kids, but I think I also picked up a lot about processes and attention to detail from my mum, who would lay her patterns out on the table after dinner and work on her dressmaking.
Start your property search
Did you get an apprenticeship straight from school?
Actually, when I left school I did two years of youth ministry for the Catholic diocese. I really loved it but as a youth minister you received a very basic income and I needed to get a job that paid more.
I met a Dutch guy called Tom Beuker who was building his house and I started working for him. He introduced me not only to building, but to the European sensibility that having a trade is valuable and respected and honourable. Tradespeople are viewed differently in Europe, they have a certain prestige. Here, we don’t always have a high regard for the trades.
I get very different responses from people depending on whether I introduce myself as a television presenter, a public speaker, a radio host or a builder. Actually, I am a carpenter — my trade certificate is in carpentry — and I am really proud to say that.
Should we be encouraging more people to get into trades?
Definitely, and women as well as men. When I left school in the 1980s the focus was on white collar jobs and going to university, which is fine for some people. I don’t have a problem with university education, I have done three years of an educational psychology degree, which I didn’t finish. But I think we have done ourselves a disservice by not encouraging people to go into the trades, and not having as much respect for those who fix your drains as we do for other occupations.
As a result, we have now got a chronic shortage in this area. We need to revise our attitudes. That’s me getting on my high horse!
Why did you go into radio as well as working as a carpenter?
Just after I started building I got to know people in radio who wanted to create a platform for trainee hosts. At the time Newstalk ZB had hosts on until midnight, then they would play music until 5.30am. So it made sense to dump all those people training to be hosts on to the radio between midnight and 5.30am instead of playing music. I got asked if I would like to host an overnight programme and back then, I’d say yes to anything. I thought, ‘Why not, I can chat to people’. I’m not sure what I was thinking. But when I was with the youth ministry I’d got used to open discussion where people could share ideas, so radio was a good fit in a sense.
Did you do both jobs at once?
Sometimes. The radio wasn’t full-time...; I would have periods where I did it regularly for three days a week and then sometimes I wouldn’t do it for a while. But there were definitely times when I would finish at ZB at 5.30am, have a change of clothes in the ute, drive to the building site and then sleep or an hour or two in the car before starting work. I would go home at the end of the day, sleep for a bit more and then go into the station. I was young, I was working all the hours that I could.
Was doing an overnight talkback show a challenge?
It was interesting. ZB was tiny at the time and there were hundreds of listeners overnight rather than thousands. My goal was to get through the night without having to play a song because I had run out of things to say. I must have been terrible to listen to because if I wasn’t getting any calls I would read news stories off the wire — we didn’t even have the internet in those days. I would hope someone would take pity on me and ring up, or something might provoke a response. I once had a fascinating night talking about pumpkin soup. Honestly, it was hilarious. People were ringing in telling stories about their grandmother’s recipe and the family getting together with pumpkin soup being the glue that held it all together. The topic just went gangbusters.
How did you end up combining building and radio?
I got asked to do expert segments on Danny Watson’s show, answering questions and talking about all things building-related. The Resident Builder moniker came out of that. Now I do a show every Sunday morning from 6am until 9am and it has been a great platform to share my passion for building and for housing. That is another thing I am passionate about; the poor standard of housing here and how it affects people and communities.
Was TV always an ambition?
I had thought about it. Through working at ZB I got to know [late TV and radio newsreader] Angela D’Audney. She had an idea for a car show, of all things, and asked me to do some auditions as a presenter. She pitched it to TVNZ and I have still got the rejection letter. It said something along the lines of, "you are not really cut out for TV".
I did do a handyman segment for TV One’s Breakfast Show in 2011 but after the Christchurch earthquake struck, having light-hearted stuff about things like safety didn’t seem appropriate so that was very short-lived.
Not long afterwards I saw a story in the paper about MediaWorks picking up the rights to The Block for New Zealand. Having watched the Australian version, I thought hosting it was something I could do — the Aussie host, Scott Cam, had been a chippie — but Mark Richardson had that role stitched up. On the bottom of the letter I sent, I said, “If you don’t need me to host, I could be site foreman.” And here I am.
Was it easy making the transition to TV?
It was different. When I started out I figured the people to ask for advice were those members of the crew, like the camera operators and soundies and story producers. They see you first and how you are doing. When I first started I said to a soundie called Terry King, and a couple of other guys, “I figure being a presenter is a skill like any other and I would like to be good at it. You’ve seen a lot, you see what I do — tell me what I need to change.” They were very generous and insightful with their time and their advice and I am enormously grateful.
You still have your building work — is doing The Block NZ a big commitment?
It is, although when I am doing it I don’t work on other houses. Each season can take up to six months of my time including the work that needs to be done before and after filming. The thing with The Block NZ [the current season of which has been postponed to next year because of Covid-19] is that I am responsible for things like getting the code of compliance for the building. I manage all of the council inspections and there are a lot of them. Because there are four places, there are four lots of contractors to deal with. And in effect, myself and one other person are responsible for health and safety on site. People like to point out what we are doing right and wrong but I am proud to say, up until now, the worst injury we have had in what I reckon is around 76,000 hours each series, is three stitches to a minor cut in somebody’s hand.
Do you get time for hobbies?
I’m really sad, I don’t have any. I like to spend time with my wife Debbie and our son Joseph and I am reasonably involved with the community and my son’s school. When I do have spare time I am genuinely happy in my workshop pottering away making something or checking my gear. That’s kind of leisurely, isn’t it?
Catch up on episodes of Newstalk ZB's Resident Builder below:
