Slice of Paradise: A property match for first home buyers, Lucy and Adrian from Christchurch.

Back in Christchurch after spending some time away post-quakes, Lucy and Adrian were looking for a three-bedroom home near their family when they joined Slice of Paradise. Three's property reality show follows Kiwis on their journey to get on, or move up the property ladder, hosted by Peter Wolfkamp and Shelley Ferguson. While on the show they fell in love with a property in Halswell, bargaining and managing to secure it within their $480,000 budget.

Lucy says when they started with Slice of Paradise, they were surprised by the variety of houses available. "We'd obviously been looking, but there were quite a few options we hadn't considered. They really opened our eyes to what was out there and things we hadn't really looked at before," she says. "One of them would've been the house in Hoon Hay... I think probably judging on looks, if we had looked it up ourselves we probably would've dismissed it. It was interesting to see it and see a different house than we normally would have gone to."

On their home buying journey the couple found it challenging to make sure they didn't get too emotionally invested and Lucy says it was a "big learning curve". "You can't let your emotions get too involved when you're buying a house because it takes away everything else. You can't look at it practically... You get so disappointed when it doesn't happen."

Lucy says they also had to learn not to expect their first home to be perfect in every way, and to instead look at it as a starting point. "It doesn't have to be perfect. It can be five to ten years, it doesn't have to be the be-all and end-all. If I had just told myself at the beginning to stop looking for that perfect home... That's the best piece of advice I could've given."

While some of the homes may not have worked out, the property Peter showed them in Halswell did. For Lucy, she says the best part was finally owning their own home after all of their hard work. "We were just so happy to get something that really ticked all of our boxes. It was perfect for what we needed," she says.

Since Slice of Paradise finished filming the couple have already moved in, along with their baby daughter Bella. They've taken advantage of the fact they're no longer in a rental and have started gardening, Lucy says. "This is the first time we've actually wanted to get involved and to want to tidy everything up," she says. "The next steps are just to keep going really. We're definitely planning on staying put at least five years, if not longer. We're really happy."

Watch Slice Of Paradise on Three every Wednesday at 7:30pm.