A special build for some close friends, in a place that’s always meant a lot to me.

The Sauna Project — Plimmerton.

Ever since starting this whole thing, I’ve had this idea in the back of my mind to bring something to the Paremata/Plimmerton coastline. It’s home. Grew up there, and I still feel really connected to it. So when Johan and Andrew said they wanted to build a sauna there… I was all in. I knew it had to be something special.

And it turned into exactly that — but not without a bit of chaos along the way.

This one really pushed us. It’s different from anything we’ve done before. Bigger, bolder, and a real step up in terms of the experience we were trying to create.

The design side of this was a proper team effort. Months of back and forth — whiteboards, SketchUp, quick chats that somehow turned into hour-long deep dives on user experience, layout, practicality… all of it. We’d land on something, question it, then somehow end up back where we started.

Even mid-build, we made the call to go bigger on the main window — which meant ripping out work we’d literally just finished the day before. Bit of a laugh now… not so much in the moment.

Johan had a clear vision with the heater setup.
Andrew kept pushing the “go bigger” button.
And I was somewhere in the middle going “we could do this…” and then figuring out how the hell to actually build it.

It was detailed, messy, fun, frustrating at times… but in a good way. The kind of project that gets under your skin a bit. And we’re all pretty proud of where it landed.

Build-wise, this thing took up space — in the workshop and in the head. The half-circle lower bench was probably the biggest challenge. Every single slat measured and cut individually. Templates, maths, patience… and yeah, pretty much every tool in the shop got used.

Massive shoutout to Gary. I get to throw ideas around (and create a bit of chaos), but he’s the one who actually makes it happen. This one was a serious effort from him.

At a certain point I stepped away from the build side, but honestly that was only halfway. What Johan and Andrew have put in since then to bring this whole thing to life on site — infrastructure, systems, the full experience — it’s a huge effort.

May 10 is locked in for launch, which is pretty cool to see.

There’s a lot tied up in this one. It’s not just a build. It’s friendships, trust, a lot of time and energy, and just backing yourselves to try something a bit different.

At the core of it — we just wanted to create one of the best wood-fired sauna experiences in NZ.

And to do that in your hometown, with your mates from school… yeah, that’s pretty special.

Designed by: Johan, Andrew & Luke
Built by: Gary, Andrew & Luke