We made the decision about two years ago that the time was right to start winding up our Auckland life. Things had just got too stressful. We have been dealing with a number of serious health issues, which are all in one way or another attributed to stress. We have always talked about moving North but couldn’t imagine running our businesses from there, or uprooting children from school. Then I realised how much of that story was just an attitude and that if I kept telling myself that we would never find the right moment, so we began the very hard process of cutting the strings to the city.
I closed our little store in Ponsonby a year ago and shifted our retail online, and got our beautiful home ready to sell.
I am currently working through the red tape of what I we can to do in such a special place, and minimizing our impact on the environment.

My family have 25 acres of rainforest that backs onto the Mataraua Forrest at the very top of the Wekaweka valley in south Hokianga. This is a very special place with Kiwi, Kokako, giant Kauri snails and dragonflies. It is also right on the old Waoku Coach Rd which takes you up into the hills with old stone walls, bridges and two great waterfalls... Amazing walks, right on the doorstep.
A big part of our plan is to build an eco-retreat that will be available for all of you to come and stay. There will be a tiny 'art house', in Native Agent style, nestled in the bush - completely off grid and unplugged. We have no cellphone coverage here - perfect for a digital detox!
There will however be a hot tub (wood powered) and a natural swimming pool.


But for now I have bought a second hand tent on Trademe and an old 4x4 ute to get me up our driveway (which is more like an off road adventure) and am preparing to set up camp.
So having uprooted my whanau from their comfortable bubble I have to get cracking and follow through! Let the hard work begin.

On a summer day a couple of years ago I was in the vege garden with my girls. We were having a passionate debate about how broken the world is – how hard it is to change our own habits and what might become of the planet. It is a conversation we have too often and one that never really has a satisfactory resolution. But this day my daughter looked at me hard and asked me in a way that made me feel it was actually ‘MY’ responsibility ‘what are you going to do about it?!’ and I answered her with a sudden brain flash ' I am going to teach my kids to grow their own food, lead by example, and share our story.’

And so our journey home began ....

This is all about our commitment to living lightly on the earth, growing our own food and generating our own power.

 

Making a dream a reality can take real grit and commitment. Sometimes you can lose your way and it is very easy to doubt yourself - But there is no room for doubts if you want to actually get there. You have to back yourself, even when it all seems impossible and the people around you think you are bonkers!

I say this as someone who has just embarked on a bonkers journey. Sold up in the Auckland boom housing market and is following a crazy hippy dream that started with my parents in the early 70’s.

I am now camping out in Northland with a pen and paper and a head full of crazy dreams. My youngest child has just started a new high school a two hour drive from where we will be living as the schooling options aren’t that great. I have no building permits or plans as yet, and I’m not even sure where exactly I will build our house, but I do know that it just makes sense to me that if I don’t start now I never will!