Werner Naude. Photo/Stephen Parker
Let's introduce Werner Naude with a pronunciation lesson. That 'W' is sounded as a 'V', it's the way they say things in the part of South Africa he's from.
He's only been one of us a handful of years but he's made his architectural mark. It's his design work that's helped make Eat Streat the standout feature it is and those eye-catching wood-encased buildings popping up around the city are Werner Naude- influenced too, as is the Toi Ohomai health and sciences building.
He's a huge fan of his adopted home town's Wood First policy. "It's probably the most sustainable product you can use, part of our environment."
His architectural skills speak for themselves. What Our People wants is the inside running on is why he and wife Carina chose this place of ours as the one spot in the world to settle or, more precisely, how it chose them.
Who better than an architect to draw us a verbal blueprint of what went before?
The sketch he produces is based on a foundation of what we can only call "gee whiz" moments.
Werner's eyeballed sharks, rubbed shoulders with sheiks and been close as damn it to being an Aussie deportee.
Growing up in coastal Amazimtoti in Natal Province this son of a dentist dad and a dietician mum depicts his early years as 'carefree, outdoorsy'.
"I grew up at the beach, there was a lot of deep sea fishing then my parents got into scuba, I did my first dive at 12."
What boy couldn't become an underwater devotee when his maiden dive's as shark-scary as they come?
"I went right down to the bottom and there was this group of ragged-toothed sharks waiting, I was very excited, hiding behind a rock, carefully observing, from then on in I was hooked doing hundreds of dives." Deep wrecks were a natural drawcard.
An avid surfie from his early teens, Werner gives the impression he rather resented school interfering with 'hanging 10' on the Indian Ocean's big kahunas.
Surely to have become an architect he must have been academically inclined?
"I actually don't think I was, if I had a goal to achieve that motivated me to do well."
He was around 15 when architecture became that goal. "I guess it was some kind of intrinsic attraction, I liked drawing and the idea of designing things that would last a long time."
He enrolled at the University of Pretoria for what was initially to be five years, his Masters included.
His Bachelor's study brought "varying levels of success".
"I think it's fair to say in my final year my academic performance was poor, I was socially distracted."
Unsurprisingly, a girl cops the blame.
The psychology student who attracted him may now be his wife but Werner was up against star-studded competition.
"One of my friends was often likened to Brad Pitt, the girls came to parties to look at him, when I first saw Carina she didn't have eyes for me, I really had to pursue her."
Persistence paid off, with the Pitt look-a-like eventually sidelined the pair became close, deciding to do their OE together.
Werner joined one of London's most prestigious architectural firms - that overworked 'p' word's appropriate in this context.
Based in Hampstead, the nesting place of London's richest rich listers, Werner's employers didn't pussyfoot around with 'normal' housing projects.
"We designed for the very, very top end of the luxury housing market where homes were in the 20 to 25 million plus pounds range [NZ$35-$45 million], places owned by oil-rich Arab sheiks, Russian oligarchs, not your normal rich people. It's work that's proved invaluable to me."
Meanwhile, he was hatching a cunning plan. "By then I knew I wanted to marry Carina so I took her to Paris, proposing up the Eiffel Tower."
Yet again he scooped a Hollywood celeb, this time Tom Cruise. "He didn't propose there [to Katie Holmes] until after my proposal."
Keen to marry at home the couple lived a life that, financially, was the polar opposite of Werner's firm's clients.
"We were very frugal."
Once home Werner enrolled for the Masters he'd left dangling, coupling study with project work for his London employers.
"They wanted me to go back when I graduated, the work permit was organised but it was the year of the global financial crisis, my boss said 'things aren't going well, we'll put you on hold six months'. In the end it was a good decision, by then both our families had emigrated to different countries."
The Naudes followed Carina's brother to Australia, she'd successfully interviewed for a job in Darwin, while waiting for her work permit she was dropping in to get to know the company's systems and prospective work mates, her unpaid diligence coincided with a job offer for Werner.
"I was so happy but went home to find Carina in tears."
Immigration authorities had been alerted to her working, albeit unpaid, while on a holiday permit.
The couple were grilled to the Nth degree. "We were ignorant that permit excluded voluntary work. They said 'we're deporting you to South Africa', if you're deported your passport has red flags, no other country will let you in for 20 years, then they caved in, ordering us to leave ourselves."
With Werner's parents already in New Zealand it was their obvious destination and with both on the skills shortage list they qualified for residency.
Architecture may be considered to have a shortage of skilled practitioners but Werner was fighting a losing battle on the employment front when Carina was offered work as a child psychologist in Rotorua.
Werner remained frustratingly unemployed until APR Architects agreed to see him.
"I said I'd work for free, I just wanted to learn about New Zealand construction and architecture."
His unpaid work led to a full time job, remaining three years.
In 2012 he moved to Darryl Church's award-winning architectural design company where he's a newly-minted business partner.
Rotorua's where he intends to stay.
"Our kids have been born here, this place is an absolute joy."
WERNER NAUDE
Born: Pretoria, South Africa; 1982.
Education: Primary, high school Natal Province, University of Pretoria.
Family: Wife Carina, daughter Sienna, 6, son Dylan, 4.
Interests: Family, mountain biking, Enduro racing "I wouldn't say I'm great at it but I enjoy it". "Architecture is my passion, any kind of design, I make furniture, chairs, cutlery; I've entered several contests, never won, but have been a finalist in a few. What interests me about design is the narrative, the story makes the design."
On South Africa: "Because it's on the African continent there's a lot more freedom there, it's more raw, natural, not so heavily legislated and regulated and that's its downfall."
On Rotorua: "It's the centre of the universe, isn't it? The place where Maori culture's at its strongest and celebrated proudly."
Personal philosophy: "It's the life in my days not the days in my life that count."