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It all starts here
I moved house 17 times before I turned 22 | Paula Bennett
Season 1, Ep. 7
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Paula Bennett was five when she started sitting out the front of her parents’ dairy in Kinloch, chatting to every customer who came in. By six or seven she was pedalling grocery deliveries to elderly locals who’d feed her home baking in return. Host Vanessa Williams sits down with the former Deputy Prime Minister for a conversation that runs from that tiny, five-or six-hundred-person Taupo village through seventeen house moves before she turned twenty-two, a baby at seventeen and the shame that came with it, and a first home at nineteen with no working oven for seven months. Paula talks candidly about using moving house as an escape hatch in her twenties, the rest home dishwashing job that pointed her towards university and then fifteen years in politics, and the dinner table joke from John Key that eventually led her to Bayleys.
- Growing up living above her parents’ Kinloch dairy on the shores of Lake Taupo, a village of five or six hundred people; at five she’d sit out the front chatting to every customer who came in, and by six or seven was pedalling a bike basket of groceries to elderly locals who’d bake her something in return.
- Moved house seventeen times by the time she was twenty-two, and says she later used moving as an escape hatch in her twenties, "fresh start, move house," whenever life wasn't going right.
- Grew up at a strictly patriarchal dinner table where she couldn't speak until spoken to and watched her brothers get freedoms she never did; that "innate sense of unfairness" is what turned her into a feminist.
- Had a baby at seventeen as a solo mum in 1987, wasn't allowed to see her daughter's ultrasound scan in case she still chose adoption.
- A move to Auckland after her brother's death became her reinvention: washing dishes at a rest home surrounded by professional women who told her the alternative was minimum wage and struggle, and who pushed her towards a university degree in policy.
- Fifteen years in politics, including serving as Deputy Prime Minister, ended with a dinner table joke from John Key, "who's going to employ Paula?", that led her to Bayleys, where she now works in client engagement and strategic advisory.
In November 2020, Paula Bennett joined Bayleys in the commercial division. Paula has been promoted to National Director of Customer Engagement and Advisory. She leads Bayleys' engagement with select corporate, government, large developer and private wealth clients, excelling in building relationships, understanding client needs and tailoring a property plan across Bayleys' offerings, including transacting large property deals. Paula is also integral in supporting leadership across women in commercial property.
During her 15-year career in politics, Paula Bennett served as Deputy Prime Minister and a Cabinet minister with portfolios including social development, associate finance, state services, police and local government. She is currently Director of Strategic Advisory at Bayleys Real Estate, Pharmac Board Chair and Board Chair of Sea Cleaners. Paula has a podcast with the NZ Herald, now in its 9th season. Paula is Māori, with Tainui ancestry.
Vanessa Williams is General Manager – Customer at realestate.co.nz, New Zealand's longest-standing property portal. She's one of two voices behind The New Zealand Property Report, realestate.co.nz's monthly read on the market, alternating as spokesperson with CEO Sarah Wood, and she's the resident property expert on Frances Cook's Making Cents podcast. With more than a decade at the company, she's known for translating realestate.co.nz's own listings, stock and price data into practical guidance for buyers, sellers and renters.
Links
● https://www.bayleys.co.nz/paula-bennett
● https://www.linkedin.com/in/paula-bennett-56983886/
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6. From Shorty Street videos to Celebrity Treasure Island | James Mustapic
28:52||Season 1, Ep. 6When James Mustapic's mum left for a trip to Europe, he started filming videos recapping Shortland Street's weirdest moments from her freezing Dunedin living room, meant purely to catch her up when she got home. She loved them, and so did some of the show's own cast, who started sharing the clips themselves. Host Vanessa Williams talks with the comedian, TV personality and Celebrity Treasure Island 2023 winner about that accidental start, after years of unwatched bedroom comedy videos beforehand, the discipline that turned it into a real career, and why, eight and a half years into the same Auckland flat, he's still a committed homebody. They also get into his nightly diary habit, nearly eleven years running, and why his new, bigger Auckland bedroom has him hunting down the bar heater he grew up with in Dunedin.HighlightsGrowing up in a famously cold Dunedin house, he got by on an electric blanket and a glowing red bar heater long before the family got a heat pump.James started filming Shortland Street recap videos from his mum Janet's Dunedin living room at 15, meant only to catch her up while she was travelling in Europe; before long, cast members from the show were sharing the videos themselves. Before that hit, there were years of unwatched comedy videos filmed from his bedroom, purely for practice, and that same bedroom is now, rather less glamorously, a bathroom.He also won the New Zealand International Science Festival's Science Idol with a chemistry-themed parody of Justin Bieber's “Boyfriend”, about atoms bonding, beating his own teacher to take the prize.In 2023, he won Celebrity Treasure Island and donated $100,000 to Gender Minorities Aotearoa, a charity run by and for trans people, sleeping under a hessian-sack shelter on bunk beds by the lake in Wanaka the whole time.He's lived in the same Auckland flat for eight and a half years, calls himself a committed homebody who gets nervous about change, and has kept a nightly diary for almost eleven years to process each day before sleep.Guest bioJames Mustapic is a celebrated New Zealand comedian, who began his career with the online underground sensation Shorty Street Scandal in 2014, and ventured into stand-up comedy in 2015. He is now well-known in New Zealand for his hit TVNZ+ series Abandonment Issues and James Mustapic His Mum a Man, as well as his web series Repressed Memories. He maintains a regular presence on the NZ comedy circuit and has appeared on numerous TV comedy panel shows, including Have You Been Paying Attention, 7 Days, and Guy Montgomery's Guy Mont-Spelling Bee.Host bioVanessa Williams, General Manager - Customer, realestate.co.nz. Vanessa is one of New Zealand's most trusted voices on property, at home unpacking market data for industry audiences and translating it into practical guidance for everyday buyers and sellers. She regularly appears across national television, radio, print and digital media. Her commentary combines the extensive listings, search and market data held by realestate.co.nz.Links• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/jamesmustapic• Tik Tok https://www.tiktok.com/discover/james-mustapic • YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@james-mustapic
5. The house next door was family too | Lisa Tai
26:30||Season 1, Ep. 5Lisa Tai’s parents once bought a strip of land in West Auckland with another Fijian family they’d barely met but who happened to share the same last name and were going through the very same stage of life, subdivided it, and built two almost identical houses side by side. The two families lived there together for about twenty years and became family. Host Sarah Wood sits down with Lisa, who spent nearly two decades at Deloitte, rising to partner and establishing the firm’s Pacific Services Group, before stepping away to lead Ronald McDonald House Charities New Zealand. She talks about arriving in Auckland as a four‑year‑old straight after a coup in Fiji, growing up in a caravan through her first New Zealand winter, and how six months into the top job at an organisation built entirely around giving struggling families a home away from home has only sharpened what home has always meant to her: wherever her family is.HighlightsLisa left Fiji at age four, straight after the 1987 coup, and landed in West Auckland in the middle of winter with nothing. The whole family of five lived in her dad’s boss’s caravan.Her parents later bought land in West Harbour with another Fijian family they’d just met, at exactly the same stage of life.Nineteen years at Deloitte took her from graduate to partner.Now six months into running Ronald McDonald House Charities New Zealand, she is overseeing houses in Auckland, Wellington, Christchurch and Invercargill that gave 4,200 families almost 46,000 nights of accommodation in 2025, plus an onsite school so siblings do not fall behind while a brother or sister is in hospital.Her dad has since signed up as a volunteer, doing the Auckland house’s food deliveries and donation pickups every Tuesday. Ronald McDonald House has become a family affair.The photos on her wall, and a tapa cloth gifted by family in Fiji, are what she says she would carry into the next home, reminders for her children of relatives they will never meet.Guest bioLisa Tai is a proud Fiji-born New Zealander of Rotuman and Fijian heritage, proudly raised in West Auckland, a place that has deeply shaped her sense of identity, community and home. She is a wife to Junior and mum to Keilani and Kanoa. Lisa spent almost 20 years at Deloitte, including as a Partner, where she established Deloitte’s dedicated Pacific Services Group, focused on creating pathways for young Pacific people to enter, grow and thrive in the corporate world.After nearly two decades in the Big Four environment, Lisa made the decision to step more deeply into community and social impact. She believes our contribution can look different across the different seasons of our lives, and that sometimes growth means being willing to leave places of comfort and success to serve in new ways.Lisa is now the Chief Executive of Ronald McDonald House Charities New Zealand, where she has the privilege of leading an organisation that supports families through some of the most challenging times in their lives. She is passionate about servant leadership, empowering families and young people, creating opportunity, and using leadership to strengthen communities and make a meaningful difference.Host bioSarah Wood is the Chief Executive Officer of realestate.co.nz, New Zealand's longest-standing property website, which has been helping people find their perfect property since 1996 (even before Google). Since taking the helm in 2019, she has led the organisation through a period of innovation and growth, helping position it as one of New Zealand's leading technology businesses.If Lisa’s story has stayed with you, Ronald McDonald House Charities New Zealand relies on donations, fundraising and volunteers to keep families close when a child is in hospital. Find out how to give your time or support at rmhc.org.nz.
4. My house is just a house, until the kids come home | Shane Cortez
27:24||Season 1, Ep. 4When Shane Cortese's second son was born, his partner took their newborn to Australia for six weeks, and Shane got the house, and the Rugby World Cup, to himself. Except the house went quiet, and Shane, one of New Zealand's most recognised faces from Shortland Street and Outrageous Fortune, tweeted the line that ended up in the Herald: your house is just a house until it's got kids and family around it, then it becomes a home.In this conversation with host Vanessa Williams, Shane talks through a childhood spent between the UK, Tauranga and Wellington, his last years of school living in a hotel room in Palmerston North, the two very different homes he bought in London in his twenties, and the keypad code that means his teenage sons never need to knock. Thirty years into realestate.co.nz's own story of home, Shane's is a reminder that it’s the people that make a house a home. Highlights● A childhood on the move. Shane's parents separated early, and he grew up between the UK, Tauranga and Wellington before spending his last years of school living in a hotel room in Palmerston North, where his mother managed the Britannia and his Saturday job was cleaning out the beer tanks for pocket money.● The tweet that stuck. When his second son was born and the house went quiet for the first time, Shane tweeted that a house is just a house until it's got kids and family around it, then it becomes a home. The New Zealand Herald picked it up.● A code, not a key. His two sons now have the keypad code to his front door, so neither of them ever has to worry about losing a key. Between his place and their mother's, Shane says the boys have two loving homes, and that was always the plan.● His first home. A three-bedroom semi-detached Victorian in Kingston-upon-Thames, bought for £76,000 in 1996 with a fellow cast member from The Rocky Horror Show in the West End.● His second home, sight-bought. A renovated 17th-century stable house turned show home in Carshalton, Surrey. Shane fell for it on a drive-by, bought it that same day, furniture and all, and moved in with two bags of clothes.● Chasing not mediocre. On stage, at the auction rostrum and on the cricket pitch, Shane traces his drive back to having to prove himself fast as a kid who kept moving, and borrows a line from Ted Lasso to sum it up: don't you ever settle for fine.Guest bioShane leads the Harcourts Auction Division as the National Auction Manager, where he oversees auction operations, provides network wide training on effective auction strategies, and ensures Harcourts auctioneers remain at the forefront of the industry.As Harcourts' representative in the REINZ Auction Sector Group, Shane works to ensure auction documentation remains current and relevant. His professionalism and calm presence on the auction floor have been pivotal to his success, having called thousands of auctions and achieving over $1 billion in unconditional sales throughout his career, however his best job is father to two boys circumventing their way through teenage years!Host bioVanessa Williams, General Manager -Customer, realestate.co.nz. Vanessa is one of New Zealand's most trusted voices on property, at home unpacking market data for industry audiences and translating it into practical guidance for everyday buyers and sellers. She regularly appears across national television, radio, print and digital media. Her commentary combines the extensive listings, search and market data held by realestate.co.nz.Links• https://harcourts.net/nz/office/mitchell-residential/people/shane-cortese• https://www.instagram.com/shanecortese/?hl=en• https://www.linkedin.com/in/shanecortese/• https://www.facebook.com/ShaneCorteseOfficial/ Follow it all starts here wherever you get your podcasts.
3. From the dining table to one of NZ’s biggest podcasts | Dom Harvey
34:13||Season 1, Ep. 3Dom Harvey's award-winning podcast didn't start in a studio. It started at his dining room table, with about $1,500 of gear and no real plan beyond wanting better conversations than the ten-minute radio slots he'd spent two decades doing. In this conversation with host Vanessa Williams, Dom talks about that leap from The Edge breakfast show into long-form interviewing, the shift from playing a shock jock character to just being himself and how, even after more than 300 interviews, being a guest on a podcast terrifies him!Highlights• Starting the podcast at his dining table, welcoming celebrities into his home and a water-blasting fail with Mitch James.• Trading ten-minute radio slots for two-hour conversations, because, in his words, it's hard for someone to hide their true character for two hours.• Growing up in a Palmerston North house that always smelled like the previous owners' homemade jam.• “Even without a clear plan or a clear goal, if you start something and just keep going, it's amazing where you end up.”• Moving from that dining table into his own studio as co-owner of PodLab, four and a half years and 300-plus interviews later.Timestamps [00:30] Meet Dom Harvey, and why being interviewed feels harder than interviewing[02:23] The two Palmerston North homes he grew up in[10:57] How the podcast started: no plan, just a dining table and $1,500 of gear[15:13] Recording on the coffee table at home, and what it felt like having guests walk through his house[21:57] What actually makes people open up over a two-hour conversation[25:26] Buying his first home in Awapuni at 22[29:05] Advice to young Dom[30:34] The Lotto dream, and buying his mum an apartment in her 70sGuest bioDom Harvey is one of New Zealand's most experienced broadcasters and the host of The Dom Harvey Podcast. After almost 30 years in commercial radio, including 20 years hosting the nationwide breakfast show on “The Edge”, Dom launched his podcast in 2022 and has since interviewed over 300 of New Zealand's most interesting figures from sport, business, entertainment and public life. He has also written 3 best-selling books, and when he is not talking or writing, you'll find him out running.Host bioVanessa Williams, General Manager -Customer, realestate.co.nz. Vanessa is one of New Zealand's most trusted voices on property, at home unpacking market data for industry audiences and translating it into practical guidance for everyday buyers and sellers. She regularly appears across national television, radio, print and digital media. Her commentary combines the extensive listings, search and market data held by realestate.co.nz.Linksdom.co.nzpodlab.co.nzThe two Palmerston North properties Dom mentioned:· 25 Haast Place, Awapuni, Palmerston North· 115 Long Melford Road, AwapuniIf Dom's dining-table beginnings prove you don't need a studio, or a plan, to start something big, follow It all starts here wherever you get your podcasts.
2. Why home is the best school | Michelle Dickinson (Nanogirl)
34:26||Season 1, Ep. 2Michelle Dickinson's school grades were bad enough that, by her own account, she shouldn't have made it to university. She got there anyway.In this conversation, host Vanessa Williams talks with Dr Michelle Dickinson, known to many as Nanogirl, about why home was the best school she ever had. It traces back to her early years as a military kid who never really felt she had a home of her own, right through to buying and renovating her very first home, brick by brick, at 18, while working three jobs at once.She also shares how she's helping her preschool twins, raised in Cantonese, English and te reo Māori, learn at home for a world AI is already reshaping.HighlightsAt eight, her dad handed her a soldering iron and she burned her fingers finding out how it worked. It's the moment she still traces her whole career back to.Military housing meant no posters, no say in the paint colour, and a move every two to three years with just a few belongings. Her favourite posting was a Hong Kong apartment ringed by wild monkeys.She was teaching piano at 14, washing bar glasses at 16, then waitressing and folding T-shirts in a sports store, often three or four jobs at once, all to save for a home.At 18, she bought a derelict London terrace for £50,000 and rebuilt it herself. Halfway through knocking out a wall, she discovered she was allergic to the horsehair in its Victorian-era mortar.She paid her way through it all, working three or four jobs at once. She restored, rather than replaced, the 100-year-old villa she lives in now, rebuilt around a 6'9" husband, twin toddlers, and a garden they harvest from every morning.She's raising her own twins on that same curiosity, rather than instant answers, now that she's working at the frontier of an AI-shaped world herself.Timestamps [00:45] Meet Dr Michelle Dickinson, Nanogirl, and the soldering iron and rootless childhood that shaped her[01:21] Growing up a military kid: no home to call her own, and a single box carried from posting to posting[06:36] Favourite childhood home: an apartment in Hong Kong's New Territories, with wild monkeys next door[10:12] Buying her first home at 18: renovating it herself, brick by brick, and an unplanned horsehair allergy[17:22] Getting into university through the UK's "Clearing" system, despite grades that said she shouldn't have gone[25:07] Home now: restoring a 100-year-old Auckland villa around her family[28:05] Why home is "the best school": the soldering iron story, and raising her twins the same way in an AI-shaped world[31:38] The Lotto dream, a public science garden, and advice to her younger selfGuest bioDr Michelle Dickinson, known to many as Nanogirl, is a nanotechnologist, materials engineer and bestselling author who has spent her career making science something everyone can get their hands on. After years of building STEM programmes that reached millions of Kiwi kids, she now splits her life between New Zealand and Silicon Valley, where she works at the frontier of physical AI and robotics: the technology teaching machines to see, learn and work alongside people in factories and workshops around the world. Whether she’s in a lab, on a stage, or out on the water kitesurfing, Michelle stays endlessly curious about how technology can help us build the future we actually want to live in.Host bioVanessa Williams, General Manager -Customer, realestate.co.nz. Vanessa is one of New Zealand's most trusted voices on property, at home unpacking market data for industry audiences and translating it into practical guidance for everyday buyers and sellers. She regularly appears across national television, radio, print and digital media. Her commentary combines the extensive listings, search and market data held by realestate.co.nz.LinksMichelle Dickinson Instagram | Facebook | LinkedInThe Kitchen Science Cookbook by Dr Michelle Dickinson
1. The farm kid who got a loan from Gordon Ramsay for his first home | Josh Emett
35:13||Season 1, Ep. 1When Josh Emett was 28 and broke in London, Gordon Ramsay dropped £30,000 into his bank account so he could buy his first flat. You might know Josh as the MasterChef NZ judge, or as the chef behind Auckland's Onslow and Gilt Brasserie and Waiheke's Oyster Inn, but host Sarah Wood takes him back further, to a 350-acre sheep and beef farm in the Waikato. Josh talks about climbing the walnut tree by the farm gate, frying himself four eggs for breakfast since age seven, and the run of homes, London, New Jersey, Melbourne, Queenstown, that followed before he and wife Helen settled into the Auckland home that now features a bespoke kitchen they have designed.Highlights• A 350-acre sheep and beef farm outside Ngāhinapōuri, bordered by the Waipa River, where Josh spent his childhood roaming, shooting, eeling and swimming, sometimes even through winter.• The colossal walnut tree by the farm gate that he'd climb into and eat straight from, still his standout memory of that first home.• Baking from necessity: with the nearest supermarket 20 minutes away and the local dairy long closed, Josh loved to bake to satisfy his sweet tooth.• One of his early jobs was on the Waipa Delta boat, peeling potatoes on the back of the boat. His Mum would wave to him from their home overlooking over the river.• At 28 living in London, Gordon Ramsay lent him £30,000 for a flat deposit.• Buying his current Auckland home from its owner Mark, a deal settled over a shared bottle of champagne after the two of them couldn't agree on a price.• A full kitchen renovation six or seven years ago, fitted out with Sub-Zero Wolf appliances, the reason Josh says they'll never bring themselves to sell.Timestamps [01:21] Growing up on the family farm at Ngāhinapōuri, near Mount Pirongia[02:55] The walnut tree by the farm gate, and the rickety old share-milker's house[03:24] Roaming 350 acres, the Waipa River, and farm chores after school[06:33] How the farm still shows up in his cooking today[09:58] Baking from a young age, out of necessity[15:02] First jobs: the Wilson Carlisle rest home and the Waipa Delta riverboat[22:51] Buying the current Auckland home, and the Gordon Ramsay loan behind his first London flat[27:42] Advice to his younger self on that first flat, and the Lotto dream, Palm Springs or a castle in FranceGuest bioJosh Emett is one of New Zealand's most accomplished chefs, with a career spanning over two decades in some of the world's most awarded kitchens. Before returning home to build a portfolio of acclaimed restaurants, Emett earned multiple Michelin stars during his years working alongside Gordon Ramsay in London, New York and Los Angeles. He currently owns and operates Onslow and Gilt Brasserie in Auckland city and the iconic Oyster Inn on Waiheke Island.Host bioSarah Wood is the Chief Executive Officer of realestate.co.nz, New Zealand's longest-standing property website, which has been helping people find their perfect property since 1996 (even before Google). Since taking the helm in 2019, she has led the organisation through a period of innovation and growth, helping position it as one of New Zealand's leading technology businesses.Links• joshemett.com• instagram.com/joshemett• tiktok.com/@josh.emett• nz.linkedin.com/in/josh-emett-4534b940• onslow.nz• theoysterinn.co.nz• giltbrasserie.nz
So, what's this show about?
01:55|Welcome to It all starts here, with realestate.co.nz.Since 1996, even before Google, we've been helping New Zealanders find their perfect property. That's thirty years of open homes, first mortgages and sold signs.But this podcast isn't about the sale. It's about what happens after the sold sign comes down, once the boxes are unpacked and the house turns into a home. Because so much starts there.On this podcast, we sit down at the table with someone who has a story to talk about what started at home for them.