This Couple Have Spent 7 Years in the New Zealand Wilderness

to really go off the grid we don't ever ask the con vector you need to hit the road so it's not a lie let's go home leave it all behind it comes right and that's just the start our journey how far do we have to go on it shouldn't be more than an hour up the creek this isn't the way most people live their lives it's not no other way they go home after picking up the groceries through the real guru lounge so a lot of the places are not easy for us to get to and you've arrived that's our camp we've been for several weeks they're not broke nor are they on some kind of camping holiday dinners already t even better for the past six years Miriam and Peter have chosen to live as far away as possible from the rest of us learning to live off the land and fend for themselves we were both longing for the wilderness and natural places I think there's many different ways people could live in the 21st century the way we live is obviously quite rare but it's possible because we do it Miriam's from Holland one of the flattest and most crowded countries on earth no I think I was a much more nervous person when I lived in Holland when the speed is so much faster and novels all those exams and school and universities and I was gone I used to bite my nails yeah Peters our Kiwi they met in India around ten years ago he was looking after little Nature Reserve and he was telling me involved a beautiful place and actually the very next day I moved in then okay I like to take risks there was Maria more risk well you think about it that if you cut someone 30 years younger that's a risky person to be in relationship and the seats of always try to keep out Miriam was school teaching in the South Island when they decided to leave the material world behind her principal was horrified she asked me what I was gonna do within benign a period yeah and I had a good laugh about that one of course we just wash in the river and we just deal with everything it's all natural things you know women have don't have lived like this for thousands of years but living in nature can have its challenges when it comes to baby and my first wind I suffered from Denver so then Peter said you know another culture is like the inner words they use morning urine so anyway so I peed in an empty tin and I'll put it over my head and it helped was that disgusting well it was my own urine it's still your ID it was very stinking yeah so after the year on treatment I I wash it with soap and that was a lot every day is about problem solving and surviving with no power or even a solid roof over their heads I think having skills as a differently a good thing to have in case okay great in case of what pandemic imagine how quickly as a super Pentium it was spread around the world this is a place you want to be when there Evans it just give confidence that you can survive if that's if something happens whatever that is even a polka I wouldn't wouldn't say we're survivalists in that that we think it's imminent it's more like I think it's a potential the first foray into the wilderness was tough very tough that headed off up into the south Marlboro mountains in the late autumn carrying the absolute basics the first window right yeah event was so very cold and then wet and very uncomfortable and then very boring and many adjustments we had to go through it and we we've been working towards something and then we were there and we had no future yeah and then what then what what what happens now no plans to go here we're here so we are finally made it and then what are you gonna do next thing it was all so bitterly bitterly cold I got so cold that I was started losing weight and lost appetite I'll just used to wake up at 3 o'clock in the morning cold and you know just lie there waiting for the night to be over so there was a time before we had meat we're just eating mentals and rice waking up so hungry our stomach was hurting wasn't it Miriam had grown up vegetarian but to survive in her new life she would have to learn to kill and eat meat this is the little horn of the first goat and then I shot with my bow and arrow so this is my first kill I think it's ethically quite a good point that if I wanted to eat meat then at least I should kill it myself but it was very difficult even just touching meat it's very very strange if you never touched it you know there's nothing like Karis Miriam's clearly much more comfortable now as the chief food-gatherer the crossbows been replaced by a rifle and at night it's night we have wild pork so this is a little pig that I saw last week and we'd have made this delicious curry you feel bad about killing a little pig yes I feel bad about every animal really but I do really lots of eat them [Music] the bone marrow fresh fruits and veggies are harder to find out in the wild so every couple of weeks Miriam sticks of thumb out it hitches to the nearest town what overwhelming all the noise all the buses and cars all the people she busts for cash then spends the money she makes at the supermarket we've got some flour to be bread got a bit of butter and parrots what do you miss the most I think there will be fruit yeah we sometimes eat vitamin C tablets but we have to wait for autumn to get there and the berries in a bush the cost Peter and Miriam around five thousand dollars a year to live like this way below the poverty line not much just thrown away everything has a purpose this is my my possum jacket and I've used all the animal skins to put that on into this jacket and I've made do phase and met as well to sleep on yeah and which is incredibly warm there's always something to do even if it's just sitting and thinking while writing to his sister in Holland here is Sophie can you imagine a way of life so quiet so timeless so abundant and full that watching a single leaf fluttering from the trees lifted into the air by a little breeze turning silver in the sunshine is meaningful what do you think of the way we live our lives um I don't don't really know how you can stand it how can you deal with sleep deprivation anybody so tired and you have all these things and so much pressure and how do you deal with that without becoming so dull how can you keep clarity how can you keep vital and they have to go through and how do you deal with them monotone existence every day the same a laptop running around the clock how do you deal with it I have no idea no cell phones no coverage TV radio or Internet it can be easy to forget the outside world exists well almost so when the earthquake happened in Christchurch we knew event we knew that because the airplanes stopped lying because we were in the main line that runs sort of Auckland Christchurch and suddenly no jets something's happened we didn't know whether it was a terrorist attack in Auckland yeah what it was really but we knew something happened in the Pike River Mine we actually heard that explosion huge case in point at exactly the same time we were doing this interview Prime Minister John Key resigned for me this feels the right time to go we didn't find out for two days as soon as I go out into the outside world I spent all my time with reading newspapers watching all the TV channels YouTube ultimately the human world doesn't change much it's like a rhythm they've lived in the mountains by beaches in the bush and Trent the length of the country 10 months of walking which pushed them to the absolute limit of physical endurance so we went up into the tower once and there was a last section of Te Araroa north island from the top of the mountains we found ourselves in a big more rain and wind and hail and that's when I learned how to enjoy we had absolutely no option but Angela enduring has its limits the age difference between Peter and Miriam is 30 years but the bond is strong they couldn't do it alone use a little bit the grain and I'm a little bit in the body and soul together we are very strong peter is 63 now it's an age when creature comforts become more attractive do you worry about getting older and living in the bush like this I can see that one day comes when the physical body can't do it but until that time I don't have a problem with it but at times recurring malaria from his travels in the tropics have made him very sick what will you do when he gets to the point where he could physically live out here anymore we have to find a way to deal with it yeah what would you do if he can't pick up his pack and carry it and keep up with you I'll carry it for him I'll carry on how much longer can they carry on Miriam has written a book about their experiences and it's been picked up by publishers in New Zealand and Europe she's been back in Holland on the publicity trail the tools of her trade can make the locals a big jump but can they still stay off the grid if light is now shining into their lives see I don't know what one lays in front of me right but I should be preparing myself Peter now will travel we do all sorts of things you know we like to go through open doors so if there's some opportunity to go somewhere we take it

Channel: Journeyman Pictures

Views: 2,294,441

Rating: 4.8611622 out of 5

Keywords: lancewood, Journeyman, Journeyman Pictures, miriam lancewood, new zealand couple, wilderness, survival skills, alternative lifestyle, off the grid, gone bush, living in nature, adventure, documentary, adventurous, survival, great outdoors, new zealand, as nature intended

Id: PHf5p19-Cys

Length: 10min 59sec (659 seconds)

Published: Fri Apr 28 2017

Reddit Comments

[u/SoKelevra]

I haven't seen the video, but damn that woman looks stunning.

[u/Blair07]

Honest question: assuming they have sex, how does she not get pregnant?

[u/roguecloud]

Did not even need to see the thumbnail to know the husband likely looked like Kris Kristopherson

[u/brutalanglosaxon]

That guy must have some mad skills being able to convince a 10/10 like her to move in after only one day, and then take her out into the woods all for himself.

[u/turtledove411]

So what does the guy do to help? Anyone