Flatmate of the Year

Tenants could nominate a flatmate or themselves for the coveted title. Selecting a winner from over 400 entries wasn't easy! Many worthy flatmates were nominated, including:

• a flatmate who made a delicious gravy/soup called goup,
• children who were great with the housework,
• people nominated by their pets (who were suspiciously good at typing),
• husbands who cleaned the bathroom,
• flatmates who lent a listening ear to romantic troubles, and
• a fair few who were obsessive cleaners (always a good trait in a flatmate)

There was even one entrant who admitted that after 8 years, he should have proposed to his partner and flatmate, not just nominated her (Nick, we’re looking at you!).

Overall winner - $1,000 grocery voucher

This entry took up an A4 page. Highlights were:

• receiving a standing ovation from the crowd when roped in by flatmates to their all-male social cricket team, and 
• shopping for and cooking the traditional flat lasagne (which has 19 ingredients), despite being on crutches and having only learned to cook recently.

Kate also enjoys lawn mowing and sings happy birthday in English and Polish, even though she's Australian. She did manage to kill a cactus however!

Runners up - 5 x $500 grocery vouchers

Alana is a solo mum of three, and nominated her 9 year old for the way he has stepped up to help out with his baby sister, taking on extra cleaning and chores. She says she's training a good tenant for the future and thinks he deserves to buy some food he likes to fill the cupboards. 

Kishea has three young children aged 5, 4 and 3. She is not well off, but tries to make sure they have a home, warm clothes and a full tummy.

She and her children also help out every week at the Feed A Family Northland charitable trust, which provides schoolchildren with lunches and helps people out in their vege gardens. She says seeing the children happy makes her children smile. Kishea was intending to donate half of her win to Feed A Family Northland, but Barfoot & Thompson has made a donation to the charity instead.