Taking the Plunge
Hey All
Looking at doing a stint in the bush, being self sufficient....etc...etc... Where is the best place to have a base in the wairarapa/wellington region to set up a base and live off the land, maybe 2 years or more?
Looking at building a mini hutt as a kit-set and dragging in and installing in the bush, with a potbelly for cooking and heating.
Somewhere that has wild boar and deer. Easy to hide but easy access if you know it......
Any information/ideas or advise greatly accepted.
Thanks in advance
44 comments
Yes but he could walk 20km on a single huhu grub
If you are serious go down to Gorge River and visit Robert Long and his family for a week or so. Make sure you get in contact with him first.
Robert probably comes closest to knowing more about what you want to try than anyone else around at the moment.
Because as everyone else has said, living off the NZ bush is not easy.
I spent the night with a couple in their early fifties in a hut in the Waioeka. Tawa hut.
The wife told me how she had grown up in the six bunk hut with her mum dad and six brothers and sisters. As it was a hut they also had to share it with who ever showed up.
They had a bunch of horses and dogs. She lived there for 15 years till she met a Maori boy got married then they set up in the hut 4 hours downstream, and lived there for ten years.
Her dad sounded as mad as a meat axe. He was one of the early cullers. He used to drink the sap of the matai tree to get drunk.
It's a really stock standard 6 bunker and that's where they lived. Was amazing to spend the night with them there .
It's a very tough life for very tough people. It's not a place for romance.
It has a lot of novelty value from a distance, like watching a movie, its great to watch but could be a nightmare to be in...
watch the movie "Into the Wild" for a dose of reality. It is a true story, taken straight from a Diary and verified witness accounts
I've contemplated doing this fulltime many times. But you have to define 'self sufficient'. For me it means no different to the 3 month stints I've done in the Tarrys. Running traplines 10 days a fortnight. Living on dog-caught pig, goat, trapped possum and walking out once a fortnight to sell fur and stock up on veggies, pasta, rice, flour.
It's bloody hard work. Long days rain or shine. I needed 180-240 traps on the ground in the Tarrys, but averaging 40 coons a day you can make $200 daily, $2k a fortnight and live in some amazing country. Not only self sufficient but you can come out with some decent savings in the bank.
Self sufficient? You decide.
@madpom yeah i think thats about as self sufficient as you're going to get in a place like the Tararuas. theres so little in the way of edible plants... south island maori only had fern root or punga frond for locally grown starch, kumara didnt grow in the south island they would trade for it with North Island maori, until europeans turned up with starchy crops that would grow in the south island.
the fern root was very gritty and tough and wore their teeth down over time.. theres a reason why it wasnt persisted with as a food after there were more alternatives available..
Throw in a few Kakapo here and there and I bet it added a dimension to the diet.
apparently kakapo used to be thick on the ground like chickens before the introduced predators almost wiped them out, but south island maori put a high value on starchy food because there was so little of it available there.
From the distribution map (at least the Wikipedia one) at https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kakapo#/media/File:Kakapohist.svg they weren't everywhere, but from fossil evidence they were certainly spread around the Tararua.
I've heard (can someone confirm?) that Kakapo, and probably a few other now-endangered-if-not-extinct species, were also a staple part of many of the early European explorers who went on some lengthy excursions and lived off the land.
Based on what he wrote, Richard Henry certainly seemed to express no shame at eating what his dog bought back, despite being one of the tragic heroes of trying to save them.
Given the breeding issues and the long life, it probably couldn't have lasted forever, even if it hadn't been for the habitat destruction and pest invasions.
Charles Douglas thought they were tasty.
Cant see squatting on Conservation land being an option. Certainly not in the lower north island. it happens/d a lot on the east coast. was a source of agro for the Forest service and national parks rangers. (and a bit dangerous at times)
Just squatting and "living off the land " seems a lousy way to spend your time to me. why not do voluntary work, trap possums/rats or something and be useful.
Cant see a diet of possum/venison/pork plus edible native plants being that good for the health,(if you can even kill the animals anyway)
you'd have to get permission from landowners to live there.
seen plenty of semi squatters on public land, theyre a nuisance and spoil the areas for others with the rubbish they leave, temporary huts etc. theres too many abandoned camps in the hills already
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Forum | Tracks, routes, and huts |
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Started by | pejy69 |
On | 14 June 2017 |
Replies | 43 |
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