An hour - and 7 river crossings - inland from Geraldine is where arborist Li Tane and his landscaper wife Michelle are building their rammed earth, off-grid, sustainable mountain home for their family.

When John and Sharon Russell bought their vertiginous site above Queenstown for their shared-ownership holiday house, they thought their biggest challenge would be signing up other owners...

In the Waitaki Valley, Michael and Olivia Pavelitch discover they have their work cut out for them when they embark on breathing life into an historic rabbiters' cottage.

Joseph and Susannah battle storms and complex topography as they attempt to build a coastal paradise on a steep site with stunning view of Piha.

Normally, you'd think twice about building extreme beachfront in Paekakariki - but it's a challenge top industrial designer Mark Pennington is ready to take on. Will Mark and Pip's dream home come to life or get washed away?

Kim Powell and Boon Yap scour Northland for the perfect spot to build a Feng Shui home. It's a rollercoaster ride.

Roland and Lucienne Vanderwal join forces with their son Michiel to build a home out of local schist, in the middle of their central Otago vineyard.

An off the grid monolith in the Marlborough Sounds is a challenging build. But when you live 12,000 miles away like the O'Briens, it's nigh on impossible.

Ex cops Sumita and Cameron Dale want to build a lighthouse with virtually no money. Will they pull it off? And what will the neighbours say?

Heritage building enthusiasts Ted and Ita Daniels create an ultra-modern rooftop apartment on top of one of the city's most beautiful renovations.

Aaron and Christine Green create an unconventional, curvaceous creation in Cass Bay. It's as much of an artwork as it is a house, but at what cost?

After renting the local school building for 20 years, Chatham Islanders John and Bridget Preece are finally starting their own dream build, but are faced with the challenges of building on a remote island.

In Kerikeri, café owners Warrick and Judy Hyland are building the biggest house they can for their budget. But a global pandemic and construction crisis force them to make some heartbreaking decisions.

Along the shores of beautiful Lake Tarawera, brothers Stew and Gill Moss are building a home for the whole family just in time for Gill's 60th birthday party.

Carefree childhood memories are the inspiration behind 32-year-old James Davis' complex build on the Kapiti Coast.

Tony Hodge discovers that building with the humble container is not as easy as he thought it would be on his unforgiving, vertiginous, bush clad site on Waiheke Island.

In Featherston, Swedish architect Josefine Watterson tackles the challenge of creating a Passive House for her young family in pursuit of both a more sustainable lifestyle.

In North Canterbury Phil Metaxas takes on the ambitious task of completing another man's dream - that of a post-modernist castle.

Charles Webster, a man with a passion for technical engineering, and his wife Yvonne pour their energy into creating a home in the shape of a sand dune on the Coromandel Peninsula.

Mark Ahearn and his Australian restaurateur wife Liz are taking time out from their hectic lives in Perth to build a legacy family holiday home in Abel Tasman.

Matthew and Rosemarie Dunning are put down roots in Mangawhai and have decided to throw convention out the window by embracing their son's intriguing concept of a brick house in a sand dune.

Eternal globetrotter Tessa Kingsbury's dream is to convert an old Dunedin Sunday school into her forever home, but it comes with a twist - she's incorporating a glasshouse into the heart of it.

Josh and Esther Perriam have always wanted to build their family home on New Brighton's beachfront but, with a limited budget and on just a slip of land , will the design live up to their dream?

On a steep site in the wilds of Mahurangi, just north of Auckland, architect Felicity Brenchly is prepared to do whatever it takes to get their family home built.