Beginner looking for advice and tramping partner..

JT Salmon has a book on edible plants of nz, its small and is useful, available in most good book stores. If you walk the caples track (or fiordland) in the "roar" (deer hunters) you may come across some hunters in huts who can teach you how to slaughter an animal? or break it up for meat? is that what you are looking for? and mate the world is getting too full to live in the wild anymore, go 'woofing' (think they online now) and learn to grow veges, forage, build an earth house for free and rig up alternative power.

"My end goal in life is to live self sufficiently (live off the grid) and never have to pay bills again. I think this is a good way to start and to get some practice living in the wild. " NZ does not really have the wild food stock to do this and the winters make it hard if what you mean is abandoning society altogether. It can be done but would not be all that comfortable. If you mean building an eco house that is relitivly easy but not cheap to set up and you still have food and rates. Heating is the biggest issue esspecialy in high country or south of Taupo. Wood burners work but free firewood is scarce solar based heating does work but requires a huge storage tank that heats over summer to warm over winter.

Na I'd build a passive house with solar

"My end goal in life is to live self sufficiently (live off the grid) and never have to pay bills again." There is only one family who has come close to that here in NZ and that is Robert and Catherine Long at Gorge River. I know them both well - he's the cousin of one of my oldest friends, and I was the one who gave him a couple of maps and first pointed him to the area sometime around 1981. They've been there since the 80's and get a steady trickle of visitors - while they are isolated they're not hermits. I'd recommend reading the two books they've published in recent years - or perhaps arranging a visit. (Polite to ask first.) I also know another couple who lived in the Northern Urewera's possuming for quite a few years, and only came to town when their oldest daughter turned school age. Both families managed on very modest incomes outside of the usual regime of mortgages, rent and bills. But neither could they survive on zero income. Robert came close to it in the early days, but not once a family came along. While they did grow some food and catch a lot of fish, he still worked local fishing boats and went on to greenstone carving - and these days makes quite a decent living as an artist. He actually works quite hard at it. If you go looking there are some people already living this way. For instance if you fossicked around the East Cape area, you'd likely encounter a few local Maori blokes living right on the margins - pig hunting for the main part. Again probably not exactly what you are thinking of, but not so far apart either. Getting out there, meeting and learning from these sorts of people would be interesting and perhaps inspiring. If nothing else you'd get to do a spot of tramping in some back blocks. The local environment (in terms of terrain, climate, food opportunities and local people) will determine what is possible or not. That is the single biggest driver you will need to explore and understand. And that will take time and probably more than a few 'learning moments'. In short - don't let anyone rain on your dream. It can be done - you just don't know what exact shape it will take in real life yet.

Well currently I believe over 25% of the worlds population live without power, and they seem to do just fine. @Matt30uk Its probably easier to just apply for residency though I reckon :)

I've been living off grid up in the bush for the past 10 years with a micro-hydro on a small stream and some solar. Water heated by solar and wet back. Many people seem to think this will be the answer to all their problems. Yeah right! At present the stream is nearly dry and thus - no power from that source. Solar - we tend to be in the clouds up here rather a lot and that means no solar power or hot water! Then its on with the generator and its noise and costs and hassles. I love mucking around with the micro-hydro as I am totally a 'water person' and very practical. But if you are not then forget it! I am forever cleaning the intake and/or changing nozzles. Then there is battery maintenance and replacement ( just replaced $4000 after 10 years.) Hassles with inverter, charger, controller, wiring etc., etc. And so it goes on - and I love it! Have lived in Communities and shared vege gardens etc., etc. Living with just a partner is hard enough at times - multiply that out to include several others and it starts getting tough. Idealism is all very well but ----------! However I do concede that some of us, myself included, seem to have to give it a try and we become better persons as a result, but it isn't THE answer! lol

what about adding a windmill or 2 to the mix? Ive been toying with that idea even in the city. A 500w windmill will supply the hot water in wellington but even that is a 3 meter diameter turbine

Hey River I like your comments, they are very relevant and on point. We have been wanting to do a similar thing for a while now, in central otago, and I'm pretty sure we have the build sorted (passive house) but its the energy options we don't. I thought the micro hydro would be a good option it wet regions but not here as much, so we were thinking about wind turbines. They seem to be the thing for down here :) But the outlay is huge, also what concerns me is the buyback rate for power is going down fast which seems dodgy as.

Forget buy back altogether. It was a con by Meridian energy and has pretty well stopped. Its very inefficient to try and feed 240v power into the grid and even more so if its not a constant source. Can you imagine what would happen if your whole suburb set up the same power idea so that everyone had spare power at the same time and no one wanted to buy it. Build a system to supply say 120% of your energy and store the balance in deep cycle batterys