Wunderbar Passive House – We are not a company and don’t build houses. We are just a young couple wanting to inspire others. Join us in our journey of building our home that will be energy-efficient and warm with small ecological footprints.

Short stays in Passive House homes in Aotearoa New Zealand.

Posted on 17. February 202617. February 2026 by Team Wunderbar

We are featured in: https://sustainableengineering.co.nz/short-stays-in…/

We are thrilled

as we are the 2nd overall and the 1st ICF residential certified Passive House in the country that offers a guest room for you to book and stay overnight.

Recently, my parents stayed with us and were absolutely amazed by the comfort and performance of our home. Their feedback has been incredibly positive, and it’s wonderful to see how much they enjoyed their stay. Additionally, we already have reservations lined up through February and into March, which is a testament to the growing interest in Passive House principles.

If you or someone you know is considering buying or building a Passive House, our home’s performance will speak for itself. We welcome anyone to book a stay and experience the benefits firsthand. This is a fantastic opportunity for architects, builders, component suppliers, and others in New Zealand to recommend our home to potential clients. Staying in our guest room allows them to truly appreciate what a genuine healthy home feels like.

Housing is more than just shelter; it is a fundamental aspect of well-being and dignity, an international human right. Our home embodies this principle, offering a healthy and comfortable living environment.

We look forward to welcoming you or your contacts to our home in Orewa.

Our unique designed and not overheated attic space

Posted on 14. December 202517. February 2026 by Team Wunderbar

My two boys absolutely adore our unique designed and not overheated attic space in our certified passive house.

Our focus has always been to design a home that is practical, with well-thought-out storage areas, and a place where my kids can have fun and unleash their creativity in a safe and enjoyable environment.

A big thank you goes out to Natural Paint Co and Harrisons NZ for your exceptional support and excellent customer service in helping us finalize this special space.

This year has been quite a journey for us, marked by some significant challenges. We’ve navigated a recent cancer journey, faced a total justice failure from the MBIE’s insolvency lead team, and endured nearly three years of ongoing and costly remedial works at an apartment complex where we own a unit. Despite these hurdles, we remain hopeful and continue to work diligently towards securing our newly built certified passive house.

As we look forward to 2026, we aim to close out some of these uncertainties and move towards a brighter future. We wish you all a wonderful festive season, filled with peace, joy, and hope for a better year ahead.

Warmest regards

Wunderbar Passive House Team

7 Homestar (v5 Built rating) received

Posted on 6. November 20256. November 2025 by Team Wunderbar

It’s been a little quiet around here with updates about our certified Passive House due to a cancer event in my family. We have been fighting through this latest challenge with the same determination we applied to our house journey.

We are thrilled to share that we have received our New Zealand Green Building Council – NZGBC Homestar certification v5 Built rating)! We aimed for an 8-star rating and got close, but missed it by a narrow margin. As we ran out of funds, we had to downgrade some items, sadly. The difference could have been fixed by improving other fixtures, but it was too late in the process for us. Additionally, we missed out on some Waste Management points, which were crucial for achieving the 8-star rating. Engaging multiple builders on-site and focusing on surviving and completing the house contributed to this oversight.

Looking ahead, we would achieve a higher Homestar rating in the future, like replacing downgraded items with more efficient ones. Once public transport is available in our new development (expected by 2027, according to Auckland Transport) and we have our solar system installed, we would be in a better position to improve our rating.

Despite these challenges, our lovely abode has scored top points for thermal efficiency and performance. This achievement is confirmed by both Passive House and Homestar certifications, and we are incredibly proud of it.

Thank you, Ammy and Kyle from www.se.org.nz being on our journey since 2021. Thank you, Andrew Eagles for your aid.

Guest room is now available for bookings

Posted on 11. July 202511. July 2025 by Team Wunderbar

As of now, we are the 2nd out of 160+ certified passive houses in New Zealand that offer a guest room for you to book and stay overnight.

Anyone can book, and of course to all the architects, builders, component suppliers, and others in New Zealand, you now can tell your potential clients to stay at ours here in Orewa in case they need a little help making their final decision. To have a genuine healthy home is an international human right, which emphasises that housing is more than just shelter; it’s a fundamental aspect of well-being and dignity.

You may see the cost to stay as a help to ease our difficult financial position from the unexpected and challenging house build journey we experienced. We are more than happy to share our journey over a glass of beverage but with a focus on the benefits of a passive house.

Book here:

https://www.booking.com/…/nz/wunderbar-passive-house.html

1 year houseiversary!

Posted on 10. June 202510. June 2025 by Team Wunderbar

We moved in without functional bathrooms, running water, or flooring. Dust sheets covered the concrete and beach mats brought by our friends were used to create a small walkway for our kids. I showered outside with a garden hose in the middle of New Zealand winter. Now, one year later, we are proud of what we’ve accomplished. It is a house that needs little or no heating/cooling. It’s an incredible experience and soon you will be able to experience it too, as our guest room is nearly ready for bookings.

Certified Passive House achieved!

Posted on 4. May 20254. May 2025 by Team Wunderbar

We are now the 160+ certified passive house in New Zealand!

Thank you so much to those who helped us achieve this!

Count of certified Passive Houses in New Zealand:

https://sustainableengineering.co.nz/nzphcount/

We’ve got CCC for our house!

Posted on 19. February 202519. February 2025 by Team Wunderbar

There are unfortunately people in the New Zealand building industry (we hope are few) who placed obstacles in our way and ripped us off despite my family bleeding out under life-threatening conditions. We hope there is real justice in this life at the end.

Despite the bad people, more importantly, we want to thank all the genuine people who had their hearts in the right place and supported us in our passive house-building journey.

The next and final step is to complete the passive house certification. Hopefully, we can share more positive news soon.

Manufacturer – Izodom 2000 Polska

Posted on 30. December 202419. February 2025 by Team Wunderbar

As a part of our building journey and closing off the year 2024, we would like to start sharing more about the products and businesses we worked with and that supported us.

We want to begin with an international company Izodom 2000 Polska (www.izodom.pl) established in 1991. This is the main structure of our house and is called ICF (Insulated Concrete Formwork). The Izodom walls require no thermal insulation, and provide a building with no thermal bridges, which is fast, resistant to moisture and fungi growth, and durability lasting over 150 years. The technology has a certificate of the Certified Passive House Components issued by the Passive House Institute in Germany.

Cheers to the year 2025!

A sign of life, 15 months later . . .

Posted on 20. August 2024 by Team Wunderbar

At the bottom of hopelessness and life-threatening hurdles in our passive house-build journey, we want to believe there are a mountain of opportunities. We are still alive and closer to finishing. We wanted to share a small glimpse of our house and the beautiful moment caught on camera today.

It’s a pity that we couldn’t find the pot of gold as folktales tell.

Could we promise that we will be back? No, and if we do, we will not be the same. Soon the tales of our unexpected journey will be brought to daylight the good, the bad, and the ugly ones.

As for now, we enjoy this rare moment of beauty and hope.

Richtfest celebration

Posted on 7. May 20237. May 2023 by Team Wunderbar

The roof shout (Richtfest) is considered a long-standing tradition and milestone in construction.

We celebrated it and hope that smashing traditionally a glass will turn off some of the bad luck and negative experiences with our building journey. There is still some work to be done until we can finally move in and share more to help others have a smoother building journey.