February 23, 2025 • 22 mins
Peter Wolfkamp’s passion for carpentry began at the age of one and has only grown over the years. He is a Licensed Building Practitioner with extensive experience, including restoring historic properties and working on modern builds. His professional development includes NZGBC Homestar Home Coach training, and he’s also worked internationally, such as on a 16th-century farmhouse in France.
Peter is a well-known radio personality on Newstalk ZB, hosting Sunday Mornings with the Resident Builder, a top DIY show with a weekly audience of 198,000. For over 25 years, he’s offered advice on DIY projects, earning recognition as New Zealand’s leading DIY radio personality.
In television, Peter has been the site foreman on The Block NZ since 2012 and launched Creative Living in 2016, focusing on home renovations. He also co-presented Slice of Paradise in 2017, helping people find their dream homes. With his friendly approach and extensive expertise, Peter has built a trusted reputation in both the building and media industries.
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Speaker 1 (00:09):
You're listening to a podcast from News Talk sed B.
Follow this and our wide range of podcasts now on iHeartRadio,
Real Conversation, Real Connection. It's Real life with John Cowen
on News Talk s ed B.
Speaker 2 (00:33):
Goday. Welcome to real Life. I'm John Cown and my
guest tonight, master builder, master broadcaster and a top Peter
wolf Camp. Welcome.
Speaker 3 (00:42):
Lovely to see John pleasure.
Speaker 2 (00:44):
Okay, I'm just thinking you in thirty seven years and broadcasting.
Switch your microphone off. I'll tease you about that for you.
Speaker 3 (00:52):
Hey, Lovely to see you, and lovely to bump into
you last week as well.
Speaker 2 (00:55):
Oh that's right, I was doing a wedding down on
the beach in a gale. Richy. It's fun being a celebratet.
I love doing weddings and and things like that, but
when the wind is howling around in the and the
bride is flying off in the wind.
Speaker 3 (01:11):
It's a little bit yeah.
Speaker 2 (01:12):
Yeah. Anyway, So nineteen sixty one New Zealand had a
very important import Yeah. Well they brought you in.
Speaker 3 (01:21):
Well, not me. I wasn't around at that time, but
my mum and dad arrived on the Zoda Cross and
for Duchies of that generation late nineteen fifties, early nineteen sixties.
It was I think it was an old like troop
ship that they just painted white and then used to
transport migrants across the world, and that was their journey.
And so a couple of years later I arrived and
(01:42):
followed by a younger sister.
Speaker 2 (01:44):
Yes.
Speaker 3 (01:44):
So yeah, the wolf camps, of which there's there's still
only one family. There's just us right in all of.
Speaker 2 (01:51):
You hear anyone talking about a wolf campus, little be us. Yeah,
And now you've done so much broadcasting, You've done so much.
You're well known as a builder and television. What are
you doing at the moment that diary that you got there?
Sorry that what fills that diary that you've got there
(02:12):
in front of you?
Speaker 1 (02:12):
There?
Speaker 3 (02:13):
Oh well, look, obviously I work this morning here at
z B. So that that tacking along. That'll come up
to eleven years now of doing that Sunday morning show.
And I think I'd like to think that it's growing
into something that's if not sort of appointment viewing. People
enjoy the show. People come up to me and say
that they enjoy the show. I think I've come to
(02:33):
realize that it's also a little bit about community. You know,
there's the technical aspect of it. You know, what type
of fixing should I use, what's the compliance regulation. But
there's always a bit of a human story in it
as well. You know, I've got this challenge, or I
need to extend, or I need to alter the house
to accommodate maybe some people who are older, or a
(02:55):
disabled person living in the house or something like that.
So there's all it's the human element. I think that's
really important. So I still do I do quite a
lot of work for other brands that I represent. I
do quite a lot of public speaking and engagements around building,
and particularly around what I guess I've come to call
building literacy, which is a bit of a play on
(03:17):
that term, so it's I'm building literacy about building. So
I want people to be more engaged with the science
and the understanding why building science is important, why building
better houses is better for all of us.
Speaker 2 (03:36):
Right, And I think there's also you're talking about why
people like listening. I think people just love hearing experts talk.
I used to love, you know, tuning in and hearing
rude climb past and people like that. Or you know,
the weather guys talking about this, and I didn't understand
(03:56):
a lot of what they were saying. But it's just
it's just VET programs when they have vets on. Yes,
just thinking, Wow, I just love hearing people that know
this stuff. You know your stuff.
Speaker 3 (04:06):
I'd like to think that I do. I've done it
for long enough, and I enjoy I guess the technical elements,
and there's a increasingly within building there's a lot of
people who are incredibly well versed in the infinite details
of how moisture migrates through a solid space or intostitular
(04:27):
moisture control or vapor.
Speaker 2 (04:28):
Breas of freeze. I'm going to drop the conversation run
that past.
Speaker 3 (04:32):
I have to say, it took me a long time
to learn it and to let it just roll off
the tongue. But intostitular moisture control, you can just throw
that out generally and people just go, he must know
what he's talking about. This you suppressed me so, but
it's a real because you know, if you look at
a building that's failed, let's say, and you pull down
a ceiling and you find that the insulation is moldy, well,
(04:53):
that's often a result of a lack of control around
what happens to moisture inside a building. So I guess
I'm very respectful of the people that dedicate their lives
to that research. I think that it ends up having
a real impact on our lives. So for building is warm, dry, comfortable,
then it's better for people to live in.
Speaker 2 (05:15):
Trade. Yeah, you're not working within a big firm or anything,
So how are you staying a breast of all these
That sounds like fairly stellar quantum leaps and technology.
Speaker 3 (05:27):
Look, I'm in a really great place in the sense
that you know, I work with companies that support me
and that allows me then to spend time doing this
sort of research and attending conferences and their interests to
make you know, spending time with people who are involved
in this research. So you know, tomorrow I'm going to
one Tree Hill College here in Auckland where they have
(05:50):
an initiative for trades training where they've taken an old
building that would have gone would have been demolished as
part of a redevelopment of the Eastern Busway. It's been
brought on to site. The young people there are then
guided by some experience trades people in the refurbishment of
that building. So there's a bit of trade training, there's
a bit of technology there because they've added blower door tests,
(06:13):
they've aimed for air tightness.
Speaker 2 (06:15):
I can imagine what that might be.
Speaker 3 (06:17):
Yeah, so it's all the stuff around. You take my
old house, and most old houses, typically the volume in
the house will will just migrate through the walls and
the windows and the gaps and cracks maybe six or
eight times per hour, right, the sheer volume. What we
want is to control that. So if you make an
air type building and you can test that by closing
(06:38):
the building up putting a blower in the door, hence
the blower door test, you can get that air exchange
down to below one and then it's a much healthier building,
is it?
Speaker 2 (06:47):
Because I heard that solvents and things coming out of
blues and.
Speaker 3 (06:51):
Yeah, there is, but increasingly we're moving to low voc
So what was it volatile organic compounds? It's all there,
you know. So our paints are better than they used
to be. Typically there's still treatment and timber, but not
as much or it's not as aggressive as it might
have been in the past. And you know, we're starting
(07:14):
to investigate more what happens to that internal atmosphere within
a building, So if we use compounds that are injurious
to our health. We've changed things like benchtops are different
types of adhesive used in certain particle boards and so on.
They've changed. And we're also doing a lot more science
around monitoring that because there's some fantastic research out of
(07:37):
Ottaga University at VIC sort of longitudinal studies about the
health of people that grow up in poor living conditions.
So we know what the outcomes are and they're not great.
So if we solve housing and housing quality, we're on
the way to solving a whole lot of other problems.
Speaker 2 (07:53):
Well, was segues into a question I was going to
ask later in the show. I mean, you love renovating
old building and you love your old villas, but I've
also heard that the people that are most at risk
nowadays from lead asbestos a your di I wires.
Speaker 3 (08:12):
Yeah, and look, I had that just in the last
couple of days. I'll be but cautious around this. I
went to have a look at a property and someone
had there was some old fiber cmentsheet which most likely
contains asbestos, and someone had just started smashing it up
and it was scattered all over the ground, and I
said to the person I was with, Look, this is
(08:32):
a genuine concern, right, you know you you shouldn't allow
anyone else to come in here. So, yes, there are
genuine concerns. People ripping up lino not realizing that there's
ACM and that. Yeah.
Speaker 2 (08:46):
Oh well so it's a real thing. But you're careful.
Speaker 3 (08:50):
I'm careful, and I think you know. I've still got
all my fingers and toes, which, to be fair, you
see lots of sales reps who don't have all of
their fingers. I can assure you of that. And I've
still got pretty good hearing and my knees don't crack
too much, so I'm doing all right.
Speaker 2 (09:08):
Well that's pretty good if you're tuned in. I'm talking
to Peter wolf Camp, who's well known as a builder,
but we're going to talk about a carpenter that he
used to work for many years ago.
Speaker 3 (09:19):
Wonderful.
Speaker 2 (09:20):
This is real life. I'm John Cown talking of Peter
wolf Camp. Back with you in a few minutes.
Speaker 1 (09:25):
Intelligent interviews with interesting people. It's real life on news
talks it be? Are we are firming it?
Speaker 3 (09:37):
Don't na?
Speaker 4 (09:37):
Sorry? Come on, come here, where you what's your story?
Are you asking a killer? Where you're welcome? Are you
ready for a better?
Speaker 2 (09:52):
A better?
Speaker 1 (09:53):
A vector.
Speaker 4 (09:55):
Really wanted it away.
Speaker 2 (10:01):
Better quicking than say, welcome back to real. I'm talking
to Peter wolf Camp and I'm so grateful to my
guests picking music that I've never heard before. What have you, Joseph.
Speaker 3 (10:16):
This is Eddie Vedder and the song is Invincible, and
I kind of I stumbled upon it, I don't know,
maybe sometime last year. And I mean, I love the song.
I love the musicality, and I quite like songs that
are kind of quite driving and build up. I like
his voice. And then actually today I was I thought
I must check out what the actual lyrics or more
(10:37):
of the lyrics. And there's a really lovely line in
the song that talks about when we love, we're invincible,
and it talked a bit, and so much of the
song to me, speaks about a celebration of the human spirit.
And you know, we talk a lot about resilience, we
talk a lot about, you know, our connection with other people,
and to me, the song sums it up really nicely beautiful.
Speaker 2 (11:02):
Now talking to Peter Wolfcamp, more than thirty years broadcast
and more than thirty years a builder. But before all that,
your first we're all out of school, just wasn't it.
You're working for another carpenter.
Speaker 3 (11:12):
Yeah, essentially. So in my last year at college, which
was in at de lasl in nineteen eighty four, I
was introduced to Father David Tonks, who had been appointed
by the Auckland Diocese so by the Auckland Catholic Bishop
to head up a new youth ministry team, and he
(11:33):
then went out. I don't know where he got my
name from, but he contacted me and asked whether I'd
like to join the team, and along with five other
young lay people, we then lived in community with David,
which was not sort of super radical, but I know
that he probably would have had a couple of raised
eyebrows from his brother priests when they noticed that he
(11:54):
was living with two twenty year old women and myself
as an eighteen nineteen year old, and with two other
young men as well. And so we lived at the
old Lurero Hall, which was the Catholic teacher's training college
in Remuera, and then from there we were assigned sort
of along the lines of the deanery areas of responsibility
(12:14):
around the Auckland Diocese, which is quite a large area.
And we would also do work with local Catholic secondary schools,
so some of them came to us for retreats. We
would host mass interest at our place on a Tuesday night.
We'd be involved with the diocese with youth masses and
so on.
Speaker 2 (12:33):
So you must have been very, very keen as a Christian.
Now imagine the fuel for that faith would have been
stacked around you all your life, probably growing up in
a Christian family and you're going to a Christian school.
What ignited that fuel? Was there people that were a
particular influence, that were their experiences that you had that
made your faith more than just a secondhand thing you
picked up from your parents, so it was real for yourself.
Speaker 3 (12:55):
Look, I have an enormous debt of gratitude to the
d Lacel brothers that taught me so I went to Delasal.
There are some just outstanding men that were part of
my I guess formation at the time, some of whom
I can still contact today, which is amazing. So one
of the things that I'm most grateful for is that
(13:16):
when I was in seventh form, brother Pat Lynch, So,
Sir Patrick Lynch was principal of Delacell at the time,
and because it was a very small seventh form there's
only thirty of us back then, he was also our teacher.
He was our class teacher and our ri teacher and
had tremendous discussions with him, brother David, brother Matt, brother John.
(13:39):
You know all of these.
Speaker 2 (13:40):
Guys, and it was their lives that sort of point.
Speaker 3 (13:43):
Yeah, I saw them not long ago. In fact, we
get together, the group of us from eighty four get
together once a year and Pat came and joined us
a couple of years ago, which was great. So and
I think too, And I guess this means more to
me that the older I get and now having a
youngish son, the time that those guys, those brothers spent
(14:09):
with us talking and allowing us to explore issues around
faith and identity and so on. And to be fair,
and you've done plenty of youth work as well. Young
people can talk a lot of rubbish, right, you know,
And that's gracious and patient. As we're forming our ideas
as young people, we need to be able to explore those, right,
(14:30):
So we'll say things that are not fully formed in
order to sort of tentatively reach out and try and
make connections or try and understand the world and so on.
And those those brothers were just so incredibly patient, so
huge debt of gratitude to them.
Speaker 2 (14:47):
So you're doing this Christian youth work and you're talking
about living together with this group of people. How it
was odd that this priest was living with these two women,
well living on one of them, maybe some of the other.
You're still living part of those women, And as it happens, Yes, So.
Speaker 3 (15:05):
That's where I met Debbie and we've now been married.
She was twenty six years twenty seven years this year.
Speaker 2 (15:11):
Yeah, well, congratulations absolutely. And I know that I've read
elsewhere that you'd actually contemplated becoming a priest, and I'm
just wondering whether having dead there that sort of soured
in the idea of a celibate profession. Yeah.
Speaker 3 (15:27):
Look, I have some great friends. As we caught up
with a friend of ours who again I've known for
forty odd years, who's a priest in the Hamilton Diocese
just the other day. And I have the enormous respect
for those that choose that lifestyle and make that commitment.
Would celibacy have suited me well? Possibly not so, But
(15:50):
you know, is there something to be admired with a
life of service and dedication one hundred percent.
Speaker 2 (15:56):
As the years have gone on, some people become a
bit worse, scaly and skeptical about their faith. Has yours
deepened or waned? Or how would you describe your faith
these days?
Speaker 3 (16:10):
Look, I'm not. One of the things I like about
being Catholic is that Catholics are pretty good at accepting
people that don't do particularly well right. And I think
all of us in our own journey, we have our
ups and downs, and we spend time in the church
and outside of the church, and sometimes, you know, we're
really good Catholics, and sometimes we're not so good Catholics.
(16:31):
But ultimately I can still say that I Look, I
love my time in the church. I feel, I suppose
one of the best ways of explaining it. We like
to travel, and we have the opportunity of traveling a
little bit. If I travel, it's really hard for me
not to wander into a church as we're wandering, whether
it's in New York or London or Paris, or I
(16:53):
wasn't in need and the other day and still wandered
in actually to the Anglican Church. They're just up for
the octagon, just to spend a moment of quiet and
contemplation and sort of a chance just to center and
to let go of all of the noise in Hubbab.
So it's interesting why center.
Speaker 2 (17:12):
It's interesting how you say that churches are a central
part of your faith, and you're talking before we started,
about how you're explaining to a young person, Yeah, about
how the symbolism and the formalism of your brand of
Christianity sure embodies some of the message.
Speaker 3 (17:31):
And I guess in an increasingly you know, we're in
a modern world, right, And my tradition in terms of
being a Catholic goes back a long time, and so
as Catholics, we've been in the business of trying to
explain faith for a long time. Hence the stained glass
windows and the light, and the ritual and the pageantry
to some degree, and the different vestments that we wear,
(17:53):
and why we stand and why we sit, and why
the bell rings at different times. All of those are
I suppose, traditions that have developed to be able to
explain the mystery of faith to of people that wouldn't
have had formal learning, or wouldn't have had textbooks, or
wouldn't have been able to read. So that but I
(18:15):
love those traditions, and I think understanding where you're from
helps hopefully to inform where you're going in the future.
Speaker 2 (18:23):
Right, I'm interested that you got shoulder tap to do
this work because I wonder whether you've made a career
decision in your life because you got shoulder tap for
someone to say come building, and didn't someone to shoulder
tap you and say come and do some radio.
Speaker 3 (18:37):
Yeah. Actually, with Michael Hooper back in the day, so
he was at Radio I way back, and I met
him through youth ministry and so on. And then it
was it was way back when z B changed from
one sed B with MERV Smith and they went, actually,
we're going to try this talk radio thing, and so
they did, and of course zed B went from number
one to number twenty just plummeted back then. And then
(18:59):
with Paul Holmes and late Smith and Chris Carter and
those guys, they built it up. And then what they
realized is they didn't have people overnight, so all they
wanted was warm bodies. Right, if you could stay up
all night you had the job and as a I
don't know, twenty something year old, yeah, I can stay
up all night. Plenty of beans, you know. So yeah,
(19:20):
where you go and you're in the studio. We're up
in Durham Street, just up the road here. Building's long
gone but with cart machines, John, I remember those.
Speaker 2 (19:27):
Yes, Okay, this is the thing. I mean, I've only
done nights a couple of times, and I've never been
so tired in my life, absolutely exhausting. You were doing
nights and then heading off and doing a full day's
work as a.
Speaker 3 (19:41):
Builder every now and then. Yeah, or for a period
of time. I was at varsity, so going in and
that's the thing. But yeah, I do remember a couple
of times where I had quite a lot of work
on and wanted to grab an overnight shift and I'd
sort of finish, drive to the site, sleep for an
hour or two and then try and get in a
bit of a day's work.
Speaker 2 (20:00):
Not great. Now you drive past those houses now and
go now and go up.
Speaker 3 (20:06):
The really nice thing. And I was saying to roof Of,
I was in an event the other day where people
were getting scholarships to do tertiary training for construction, and
I said to them, you know, and there was a
whole lot of older trades people and business owners in
the room, and I said, one of the great things
that you'll get to enjoy in years to come. You'd
be driving along with a captive audience of your children
(20:28):
and their friends in the back, and you'll be able
to drive along go I built that, Yes, And man,
that feels great.
Speaker 2 (20:34):
And you've been able to do that for decades now.
And I know that you sometimes think about a house
you built in nineteen ninety one and compare it with
a house sure that you see now and buildings. You know,
some people think, oh, look at these houses, they're just
whacking up on a sort of convey about type process.
But do you think modern houses really are better?
Speaker 3 (20:55):
I think that it built well. Modern houses are phenomenally
better than what we're building. Even when I started building,
and I was involved in a project where we pulled
apart a house that was of the vintage that we
were constructing when I started. So I started building in
nineteen eighty seven, and just in terms of the wraps,
in terms of the air tightness, in terms of the
(21:16):
quality of the insulation, it's not as good as it
can be today, saying that I'd be naive to say
that every new build is a good build, and unfortunately
we're seeing examples of new builds that are overheating, that
have poor moisture control, that have issues around ventilation and
so on. But there is an increasing awareness where people
(21:37):
are going, Actually, if we build better, we'll have a
better environment for us as humans to occupy, and that's
a really good thing.
Speaker 2 (21:44):
Peter. I wish we were talking together, and up till midnight,
I watch getting looks from the producer. I can hear
the concluding music pick playing there. It's a lovely another
piece of music that you've picked.
Speaker 3 (21:56):
Yeah, this has been half of this house as a home.
I use this as my intro to the show. But again,
I think hopefully it reflects something of why I am
as passionate or as engaged with building, because ultimate lead
buildings about people. We build well in order to provide
a good environment for people.
Speaker 2 (22:14):
Peter, it's been great talking with you. It always is
to do that again.
Speaker 3 (22:19):
Let's do it again.
Speaker 2 (22:19):
This is real life on news Talks EDB. I've been
talking with Peter Wolfcamp. I'm John Cowd looking forward to
being back with you next Sunday night.
Speaker 1 (22:26):
For more from News Talks, EDB, listen live on air
or online, and keep our shows with you wherever you
go with our podcasts on iHeartRadio
You're listening to a podcast from News Talk sed B.
Follow this and our wide range of podcasts now on iHeartRadio,
Real Conversation, Real Connection. It's Real life with John Cowen
on News Talk s ed B.
Speaker 2 (00:33):
Goday. Welcome to real Life. I'm John Cown and my
guest tonight, master builder, master broadcaster and a top Peter
wolf Camp. Welcome.
Speaker 3 (00:42):
Lovely to see John pleasure.
Speaker 2 (00:44):
Okay, I'm just thinking you in thirty seven years and broadcasting.
Switch your microphone off. I'll tease you about that for you.
Speaker 3 (00:52):
Hey, Lovely to see you, and lovely to bump into
you last week as well.
Speaker 2 (00:55):
Oh that's right, I was doing a wedding down on
the beach in a gale. Richy. It's fun being a celebratet.
I love doing weddings and and things like that, but
when the wind is howling around in the and the
bride is flying off in the wind.
Speaker 3 (01:11):
It's a little bit yeah.
Speaker 2 (01:12):
Yeah. Anyway, So nineteen sixty one New Zealand had a
very important import Yeah. Well they brought you in.
Speaker 3 (01:21):
Well, not me. I wasn't around at that time, but
my mum and dad arrived on the Zoda Cross and
for Duchies of that generation late nineteen fifties, early nineteen sixties.
It was I think it was an old like troop
ship that they just painted white and then used to
transport migrants across the world, and that was their journey.
And so a couple of years later I arrived and
(01:42):
followed by a younger sister.
Speaker 2 (01:44):
Yes.
Speaker 3 (01:44):
So yeah, the wolf camps, of which there's there's still
only one family. There's just us right in all of.
Speaker 2 (01:51):
You hear anyone talking about a wolf campus, little be us. Yeah,
And now you've done so much broadcasting, You've done so much.
You're well known as a builder and television. What are
you doing at the moment that diary that you got there?
Sorry that what fills that diary that you've got there
(02:12):
in front of you?
Speaker 1 (02:12):
There?
Speaker 3 (02:13):
Oh well, look, obviously I work this morning here at
z B. So that that tacking along. That'll come up
to eleven years now of doing that Sunday morning show.
And I think I'd like to think that it's growing
into something that's if not sort of appointment viewing. People
enjoy the show. People come up to me and say
that they enjoy the show. I think I've come to
(02:33):
realize that it's also a little bit about community. You know,
there's the technical aspect of it. You know, what type
of fixing should I use, what's the compliance regulation. But
there's always a bit of a human story in it
as well. You know, I've got this challenge, or I
need to extend, or I need to alter the house
to accommodate maybe some people who are older, or a
(02:55):
disabled person living in the house or something like that.
So there's all it's the human element. I think that's
really important. So I still do I do quite a
lot of work for other brands that I represent. I
do quite a lot of public speaking and engagements around building,
and particularly around what I guess I've come to call
building literacy, which is a bit of a play on
(03:17):
that term, so it's I'm building literacy about building. So
I want people to be more engaged with the science
and the understanding why building science is important, why building
better houses is better for all of us.
Speaker 2 (03:36):
Right, And I think there's also you're talking about why
people like listening. I think people just love hearing experts talk.
I used to love, you know, tuning in and hearing
rude climb past and people like that. Or you know,
the weather guys talking about this, and I didn't understand
(03:56):
a lot of what they were saying. But it's just
it's just VET programs when they have vets on. Yes,
just thinking, Wow, I just love hearing people that know
this stuff. You know your stuff.
Speaker 3 (04:06):
I'd like to think that I do. I've done it
for long enough, and I enjoy I guess the technical elements,
and there's a increasingly within building there's a lot of
people who are incredibly well versed in the infinite details
of how moisture migrates through a solid space or intostitular
(04:27):
moisture control or vapor.
Speaker 2 (04:28):
Breas of freeze. I'm going to drop the conversation run
that past.
Speaker 3 (04:32):
I have to say, it took me a long time
to learn it and to let it just roll off
the tongue. But intostitular moisture control, you can just throw
that out generally and people just go, he must know
what he's talking about. This you suppressed me so, but
it's a real because you know, if you look at
a building that's failed, let's say, and you pull down
a ceiling and you find that the insulation is moldy, well,
(04:53):
that's often a result of a lack of control around
what happens to moisture inside a building. So I guess
I'm very respectful of the people that dedicate their lives
to that research. I think that it ends up having
a real impact on our lives. So for building is warm, dry, comfortable,
then it's better for people to live in.
Speaker 2 (05:15):
Trade. Yeah, you're not working within a big firm or anything,
So how are you staying a breast of all these
That sounds like fairly stellar quantum leaps and technology.
Speaker 3 (05:27):
Look, I'm in a really great place in the sense
that you know, I work with companies that support me
and that allows me then to spend time doing this
sort of research and attending conferences and their interests to
make you know, spending time with people who are involved
in this research. So you know, tomorrow I'm going to
one Tree Hill College here in Auckland where they have
(05:50):
an initiative for trades training where they've taken an old
building that would have gone would have been demolished as
part of a redevelopment of the Eastern Busway. It's been
brought on to site. The young people there are then
guided by some experience trades people in the refurbishment of
that building. So there's a bit of trade training, there's
a bit of technology there because they've added blower door tests,
(06:13):
they've aimed for air tightness.
Speaker 2 (06:15):
I can imagine what that might be.
Speaker 3 (06:17):
Yeah, so it's all the stuff around. You take my
old house, and most old houses, typically the volume in
the house will will just migrate through the walls and
the windows and the gaps and cracks maybe six or
eight times per hour, right, the sheer volume. What we
want is to control that. So if you make an
air type building and you can test that by closing
(06:38):
the building up putting a blower in the door, hence
the blower door test, you can get that air exchange
down to below one and then it's a much healthier building,
is it?
Speaker 2 (06:47):
Because I heard that solvents and things coming out of
blues and.
Speaker 3 (06:51):
Yeah, there is, but increasingly we're moving to low voc
So what was it volatile organic compounds? It's all there,
you know. So our paints are better than they used
to be. Typically there's still treatment and timber, but not
as much or it's not as aggressive as it might
have been in the past. And you know, we're starting
(07:14):
to investigate more what happens to that internal atmosphere within
a building, So if we use compounds that are injurious
to our health. We've changed things like benchtops are different
types of adhesive used in certain particle boards and so on.
They've changed. And we're also doing a lot more science
around monitoring that because there's some fantastic research out of
(07:37):
Ottaga University at VIC sort of longitudinal studies about the
health of people that grow up in poor living conditions.
So we know what the outcomes are and they're not great.
So if we solve housing and housing quality, we're on
the way to solving a whole lot of other problems.
Speaker 2 (07:53):
Well, was segues into a question I was going to
ask later in the show. I mean, you love renovating
old building and you love your old villas, but I've
also heard that the people that are most at risk
nowadays from lead asbestos a your di I wires.
Speaker 3 (08:12):
Yeah, and look, I had that just in the last
couple of days. I'll be but cautious around this. I
went to have a look at a property and someone
had there was some old fiber cmentsheet which most likely
contains asbestos, and someone had just started smashing it up
and it was scattered all over the ground, and I
said to the person I was with, Look, this is
(08:32):
a genuine concern, right, you know you you shouldn't allow
anyone else to come in here. So, yes, there are
genuine concerns. People ripping up lino not realizing that there's
ACM and that. Yeah.
Speaker 2 (08:46):
Oh well so it's a real thing. But you're careful.
Speaker 3 (08:50):
I'm careful, and I think you know. I've still got
all my fingers and toes, which, to be fair, you
see lots of sales reps who don't have all of
their fingers. I can assure you of that. And I've
still got pretty good hearing and my knees don't crack
too much, so I'm doing all right.
Speaker 2 (09:08):
Well that's pretty good if you're tuned in. I'm talking
to Peter wolf Camp, who's well known as a builder,
but we're going to talk about a carpenter that he
used to work for many years ago.
Speaker 3 (09:19):
Wonderful.
Speaker 2 (09:20):
This is real life. I'm John Cown talking of Peter
wolf Camp. Back with you in a few minutes.
Speaker 1 (09:25):
Intelligent interviews with interesting people. It's real life on news
talks it be? Are we are firming it?
Speaker 3 (09:37):
Don't na?
Speaker 4 (09:37):
Sorry? Come on, come here, where you what's your story?
Are you asking a killer? Where you're welcome? Are you
ready for a better?
Speaker 2 (09:52):
A better?
Speaker 1 (09:53):
A vector.
Speaker 4 (09:55):
Really wanted it away.
Speaker 2 (10:01):
Better quicking than say, welcome back to real. I'm talking
to Peter wolf Camp and I'm so grateful to my
guests picking music that I've never heard before. What have you, Joseph.
Speaker 3 (10:16):
This is Eddie Vedder and the song is Invincible, and
I kind of I stumbled upon it, I don't know,
maybe sometime last year. And I mean, I love the song.
I love the musicality, and I quite like songs that
are kind of quite driving and build up. I like
his voice. And then actually today I was I thought
I must check out what the actual lyrics or more
(10:37):
of the lyrics. And there's a really lovely line in
the song that talks about when we love, we're invincible,
and it talked a bit, and so much of the
song to me, speaks about a celebration of the human spirit.
And you know, we talk a lot about resilience, we
talk a lot about, you know, our connection with other people,
and to me, the song sums it up really nicely beautiful.
Speaker 2 (11:02):
Now talking to Peter Wolfcamp, more than thirty years broadcast
and more than thirty years a builder. But before all that,
your first we're all out of school, just wasn't it.
You're working for another carpenter.
Speaker 3 (11:12):
Yeah, essentially. So in my last year at college, which
was in at de lasl in nineteen eighty four, I
was introduced to Father David Tonks, who had been appointed
by the Auckland Diocese so by the Auckland Catholic Bishop
to head up a new youth ministry team, and he
(11:33):
then went out. I don't know where he got my
name from, but he contacted me and asked whether I'd
like to join the team, and along with five other
young lay people, we then lived in community with David,
which was not sort of super radical, but I know
that he probably would have had a couple of raised
eyebrows from his brother priests when they noticed that he
(11:54):
was living with two twenty year old women and myself
as an eighteen nineteen year old, and with two other
young men as well. And so we lived at the
old Lurero Hall, which was the Catholic teacher's training college
in Remuera, and then from there we were assigned sort
of along the lines of the deanery areas of responsibility
(12:14):
around the Auckland Diocese, which is quite a large area.
And we would also do work with local Catholic secondary schools,
so some of them came to us for retreats. We
would host mass interest at our place on a Tuesday night.
We'd be involved with the diocese with youth masses and
so on.
Speaker 2 (12:33):
So you must have been very, very keen as a Christian.
Now imagine the fuel for that faith would have been
stacked around you all your life, probably growing up in
a Christian family and you're going to a Christian school.
What ignited that fuel? Was there people that were a
particular influence, that were their experiences that you had that
made your faith more than just a secondhand thing you
picked up from your parents, so it was real for yourself.
Speaker 3 (12:55):
Look, I have an enormous debt of gratitude to the
d Lacel brothers that taught me so I went to Delasal.
There are some just outstanding men that were part of
my I guess formation at the time, some of whom
I can still contact today, which is amazing. So one
of the things that I'm most grateful for is that
(13:16):
when I was in seventh form, brother Pat Lynch, So,
Sir Patrick Lynch was principal of Delacell at the time,
and because it was a very small seventh form there's
only thirty of us back then, he was also our teacher.
He was our class teacher and our ri teacher and
had tremendous discussions with him, brother David, brother Matt, brother John.
(13:39):
You know all of these.
Speaker 2 (13:40):
Guys, and it was their lives that sort of point.
Speaker 3 (13:43):
Yeah, I saw them not long ago. In fact, we
get together, the group of us from eighty four get
together once a year and Pat came and joined us
a couple of years ago, which was great. So and
I think too, And I guess this means more to
me that the older I get and now having a
youngish son, the time that those guys, those brothers spent
(14:09):
with us talking and allowing us to explore issues around
faith and identity and so on. And to be fair,
and you've done plenty of youth work as well. Young
people can talk a lot of rubbish, right, you know,
And that's gracious and patient. As we're forming our ideas
as young people, we need to be able to explore those, right,
(14:30):
So we'll say things that are not fully formed in
order to sort of tentatively reach out and try and
make connections or try and understand the world and so on.
And those those brothers were just so incredibly patient, so
huge debt of gratitude to them.
Speaker 2 (14:47):
So you're doing this Christian youth work and you're talking
about living together with this group of people. How it
was odd that this priest was living with these two women,
well living on one of them, maybe some of the other.
You're still living part of those women, And as it happens, Yes, So.
Speaker 3 (15:05):
That's where I met Debbie and we've now been married.
She was twenty six years twenty seven years this year.
Speaker 2 (15:11):
Yeah, well, congratulations absolutely. And I know that I've read
elsewhere that you'd actually contemplated becoming a priest, and I'm
just wondering whether having dead there that sort of soured
in the idea of a celibate profession. Yeah.
Speaker 3 (15:27):
Look, I have some great friends. As we caught up
with a friend of ours who again I've known for
forty odd years, who's a priest in the Hamilton Diocese
just the other day. And I have the enormous respect
for those that choose that lifestyle and make that commitment.
Would celibacy have suited me well? Possibly not so, But
(15:50):
you know, is there something to be admired with a
life of service and dedication one hundred percent.
Speaker 2 (15:56):
As the years have gone on, some people become a
bit worse, scaly and skeptical about their faith. Has yours
deepened or waned? Or how would you describe your faith
these days?
Speaker 3 (16:10):
Look, I'm not. One of the things I like about
being Catholic is that Catholics are pretty good at accepting
people that don't do particularly well right. And I think
all of us in our own journey, we have our
ups and downs, and we spend time in the church
and outside of the church, and sometimes, you know, we're
really good Catholics, and sometimes we're not so good Catholics.
(16:31):
But ultimately I can still say that I Look, I
love my time in the church. I feel, I suppose
one of the best ways of explaining it. We like
to travel, and we have the opportunity of traveling a
little bit. If I travel, it's really hard for me
not to wander into a church as we're wandering, whether
it's in New York or London or Paris, or I
(16:53):
wasn't in need and the other day and still wandered
in actually to the Anglican Church. They're just up for
the octagon, just to spend a moment of quiet and
contemplation and sort of a chance just to center and
to let go of all of the noise in Hubbab.
So it's interesting why center.
Speaker 2 (17:12):
It's interesting how you say that churches are a central
part of your faith, and you're talking before we started,
about how you're explaining to a young person, Yeah, about
how the symbolism and the formalism of your brand of
Christianity sure embodies some of the message.
Speaker 3 (17:31):
And I guess in an increasingly you know, we're in
a modern world, right, And my tradition in terms of
being a Catholic goes back a long time, and so
as Catholics, we've been in the business of trying to
explain faith for a long time. Hence the stained glass
windows and the light, and the ritual and the pageantry
to some degree, and the different vestments that we wear,
(17:53):
and why we stand and why we sit, and why
the bell rings at different times. All of those are
I suppose, traditions that have developed to be able to
explain the mystery of faith to of people that wouldn't
have had formal learning, or wouldn't have had textbooks, or
wouldn't have been able to read. So that but I
(18:15):
love those traditions, and I think understanding where you're from
helps hopefully to inform where you're going in the future.
Speaker 2 (18:23):
Right, I'm interested that you got shoulder tap to do
this work because I wonder whether you've made a career
decision in your life because you got shoulder tap for
someone to say come building, and didn't someone to shoulder
tap you and say come and do some radio.
Speaker 3 (18:37):
Yeah. Actually, with Michael Hooper back in the day, so
he was at Radio I way back, and I met
him through youth ministry and so on. And then it
was it was way back when z B changed from
one sed B with MERV Smith and they went, actually,
we're going to try this talk radio thing, and so
they did, and of course zed B went from number
one to number twenty just plummeted back then. And then
(18:59):
with Paul Holmes and late Smith and Chris Carter and
those guys, they built it up. And then what they
realized is they didn't have people overnight, so all they
wanted was warm bodies. Right, if you could stay up
all night you had the job and as a I
don't know, twenty something year old, yeah, I can stay
up all night. Plenty of beans, you know. So yeah,
(19:20):
where you go and you're in the studio. We're up
in Durham Street, just up the road here. Building's long
gone but with cart machines, John, I remember those.
Speaker 2 (19:27):
Yes, Okay, this is the thing. I mean, I've only
done nights a couple of times, and I've never been
so tired in my life, absolutely exhausting. You were doing
nights and then heading off and doing a full day's
work as a.
Speaker 3 (19:41):
Builder every now and then. Yeah, or for a period
of time. I was at varsity, so going in and
that's the thing. But yeah, I do remember a couple
of times where I had quite a lot of work
on and wanted to grab an overnight shift and I'd
sort of finish, drive to the site, sleep for an
hour or two and then try and get in a
bit of a day's work.
Speaker 2 (20:00):
Not great. Now you drive past those houses now and
go now and go up.
Speaker 3 (20:06):
The really nice thing. And I was saying to roof Of,
I was in an event the other day where people
were getting scholarships to do tertiary training for construction, and
I said to them, you know, and there was a
whole lot of older trades people and business owners in
the room, and I said, one of the great things
that you'll get to enjoy in years to come. You'd
be driving along with a captive audience of your children
(20:28):
and their friends in the back, and you'll be able
to drive along go I built that, Yes, And man,
that feels great.
Speaker 2 (20:34):
And you've been able to do that for decades now.
And I know that you sometimes think about a house
you built in nineteen ninety one and compare it with
a house sure that you see now and buildings. You know,
some people think, oh, look at these houses, they're just
whacking up on a sort of convey about type process.
But do you think modern houses really are better?
Speaker 3 (20:55):
I think that it built well. Modern houses are phenomenally
better than what we're building. Even when I started building,
and I was involved in a project where we pulled
apart a house that was of the vintage that we
were constructing when I started. So I started building in
nineteen eighty seven, and just in terms of the wraps,
in terms of the air tightness, in terms of the
(21:16):
quality of the insulation, it's not as good as it
can be today, saying that I'd be naive to say
that every new build is a good build, and unfortunately
we're seeing examples of new builds that are overheating, that
have poor moisture control, that have issues around ventilation and
so on. But there is an increasing awareness where people
(21:37):
are going, Actually, if we build better, we'll have a
better environment for us as humans to occupy, and that's
a really good thing.
Speaker 2 (21:44):
Peter. I wish we were talking together, and up till midnight,
I watch getting looks from the producer. I can hear
the concluding music pick playing there. It's a lovely another
piece of music that you've picked.
Speaker 3 (21:56):
Yeah, this has been half of this house as a home.
I use this as my intro to the show. But again,
I think hopefully it reflects something of why I am
as passionate or as engaged with building, because ultimate lead
buildings about people. We build well in order to provide
a good environment for people.
Speaker 2 (22:14):
Peter, it's been great talking with you. It always is
to do that again.
Speaker 3 (22:19):
Let's do it again.
Speaker 2 (22:19):
This is real life on news Talks EDB. I've been
talking with Peter Wolfcamp. I'm John Cowd looking forward to
being back with you next Sunday night.
Speaker 1 (22:26):
For more from News Talks, EDB, listen live on air
or online, and keep our shows with you wherever you
go with our podcasts on iHeartRadio
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