Busy being

We’re living our dream.

It’s not quite as fluid as when you fall asleep and live in your subconscious, but the dream of ocean views, beauty-full home nestled deep in the natural world of the south island of New Zealand, living in intentional community, off the grid and on the boundaries of our intended national park is keeping us firmly living on mama earth.

We finally got here and it didn’t take too long once we got clear with our goals!

So, now we’re tucked into our spaceship, we’re having to bend our knowledge and conscious thoughts to making the universal jigsaw complete.

And sometimes this gets messy!

Finding out we needed to buy a 4WD to get to the property.

Not forgetting to add a towbar so that we could get everything we needed on a trailer to get up the hill.

Then a mobile phone as otherwise, at the very least, the community that we live in couldn’t contact us (it’s a bit of a climb to get to us at the top.)

The 'complete lack of top soil so we have to get some quick' to create gardens so that we don’t need the fridge that we haven’t got!

The fridge that we need doesn’t come along too often second hand…three way or gas…either one will set us back a few thousand dollars.

Starting from scratch, the community has enabled us to settle in comfortably by helicoptering a water tank in so that we could be on the creeks water supply with a solar panelled pump,

laying pipes to ensure the water can get to where it needs to go to. 

WOOFERS removing concrete rubble from the old water catchment pool so that the tractor can get through to do the work.

A fire installed,

a deck fence built, 

a bathroom facility made functional, 

a bedroom built outa the workshed that now adjoins the original bedroom with steps leading up to a door. 

Electricity connected, 

additional solar panels and battery back up, 

a cave for the generator.

The list has been relentless..and there’s still a good deal of work to be getting on with.

Meanwhile, adjusting our food preparation is an ongoing process.

Living with a super dooper vitamix and dehydrator on solar means that relying on dehydrated breads, wraps and crackers has fallen away to seeing these foods as treats.

Raw chocolate alchemy comes into force using the night garden as a fridge to set the sweet treats, making only what is needed at each meal and to eat an abundance of fresh foods economically.

Gardens have been made from scratching around the clay hill, enabling us to gather our food at it’s best…collecting sea grass, horse poo and top soil, cutting back the bush to not only safeguard the house from potential fire damage, but allowing us to create more space for more edible plants.

Frequent trips to the paddocks of this land, collecting bundles of dandelion, plantain and cleavers, the orchard for our seasonal fruit and the bush for lesser known wonders of the plant family feeding us each the minerals our bodies yearn for.

Filling our bellies aside, filling our home only with furnishings eagerly found at garage sales, classifieds and the local tip, we’re luxuriously living in other peoples junk … hand made tapestry curtains, oak dressers, shell-inlaid rimu dining chairs and table, Turkish rugs, fine tableware, plants and outdoor furniture.

Creating a home outa literally nothing is filling us up inside, opening our hearts, creating new friendships, reusing otherwise landfill refuse and using trade as a better system to hard cash where we all benefit from the exchange.

I will be opening our doors to you, charting our journey of living in our spaceship, high up in the trees overlooking a Bay steeped in European history, retelling the everyday stories of our dream as the vision uncurls like the baby ferns surrounding us.

Stories of unschooling, living off grid, project managing, building gardens, tree houses, climbing constructions, creating food, living in intentional community, building an underground greenhouse, outdoor bathrooms and having the time of our lives just being.