At first glance, Ethan Ordish and Sam Whatarangi look like they could be the cheeky troublemakers of this year’s season, but underneath their goofy grins are just two charming small-town boys from Te Kuiti.
“We grew up in a small town where kids played down in the creek or caught crayfish,” recalls builder Ethan, 26. “We used to have competitions on who could cut the most firewood in 60 seconds.”
After 14 years of friendship, the rock-solid pair decided they would make a dream team on The Block.
While building a house with your best mate might be in the too-hard basket, this isn’t Ethan and Sam’s first reno.
At the end of last year, they travelled to Fiji as volunteers to build a church.
“It was a pretty cool experience,” tells joiner Sam, 27. “We were really thrown in the deep end and were in charge of about 30 guys. We built a church from the ground up in about two weeks.
“After doing that, we know that we can work together pretty well. There was a lot of stress on that job, but we still managed to get it done. We’ve done other projects together like building decks for friends – and those are the things that have really cemented our friendship.”