Paul and Antonia (and Ruby) Harris [written Feb. 5, 2009]

The Postman took us to Ngunguru, just west of Whangarei, where we met the Harris family. Paul-37, Antonia-40, and Ruby-4 years old, live on a small home-made cob/earth-house perched atop one of the tallest of the nearby rolling hills. The bush is thick with young, regenerating tea-tree and the view from the dinner table stretches all the way out to the nearby coastal beaches. A bit of a closer look informs you that there aren't people for miles. The isolation gives them what they believe to be the most freedom possible. Lifestyle= Green planet + Liberty, in all senses of both terms.

Half of the area they live in isn't even mapped on Google Earth.

This statement should invoke shock in at least two different directions...

[Note: The following pictures in no way depict the vibrancy of this place. They were last minute documentations I snapped shortly before leaving.]

[Paul and Toni's bedroom, Ruby's trampoline]

Paul and Toni live a beautiful, natural life farming their land, nearly self-sustained in terms of vegetables and fruit. They collect rainwater, use solar power and a self-composting toilet.

[Composting bathroom, inside there is a view out over the bush from the toilet!]

Among other things, they grow tomatoes, citrus and banana trees, allowing them to become basically disconnected from the dependency of civilization. This is not seen as a negative and voluntary exile or expatriation, but simply an effort towards what they consider a necessity for the sustainability of a finite planet they so delicately cherish (Earth).

[Paul's jewelry-making studio.]

Their sun-shower, a floating wooden platform, resides down just a few stone steps from the main house, outside, in a small bush quarry.

[Bathe in the sun with the birds]

The area is spotted with banana trees and various entertaining wild birds, not far off from certain birds of paradise that star in the BBC's Planet Earth series. Their deck is roofed with snaking grape vines that hang down from naked wood-panels, spotted and full with "stick-insects" that are curiously approachable and friendly.

[Can you spot them?]

Extremely slow movers, these little 4-6 inch creatures wobbled back and forth as sticks might in the wind in attempt to climb forward. It was as if they were struggling through a wind tunnel with only suction-cup grips to plop onto slick walls, one at a time. But they were only moving forward an inch or two in the grass. There were two varieties, which I seemed only to be able to distinguish as "brown stick insect" and "green stick insect," female always a third larger than the male, both of which seemed to enjoy a frequent amount of sex. Lots of puns and play on words are coming to mind, but I will spare you. Paul and Toni's place was certainly romantic...

Well... the house part was at least. Sarah and I stayed in an old, spider infested camper-van down the driveway. This was called "overcoming-the-hygiene-standards-of-home-for-the-sake-of-adventure-experience" Number 1. The first few nights, I stayed up hunting mosquitoes and torching spiders near the bed-side. The city boy in me was coming out for the first time. Eventually, I got used to the friendly little bumps on my thighs and arms and would sleep side by side with the 8-legged ceiling bungee-jumpers.

[Home-sweet-home]

Antonia (and Ruby) taught me some new yoga poses. Toni is really into new age spirituality and various contemporary conspiracy theories. A lover of Louise Haye (a contemporary motivational speaker and writer that seems to be quite popular in NZ), she maintains an extremely positive outlook on life, despite her awareness and seeming cynicism. She maintains a wide array of knowledge and interests covering several theories and truth movements that are character of various American underground networks. She shares a concern for the future of humanity and has many ideas regarding light and energy and the prophecies of 2012. Aside all the negative truths she is aware of, she remains happy, understanding that her own future is dependent and shaped solely on the principle of positive thinking. She, in the shadow of Louis Haye, believes our future realities are shaped based on the thoughts and mental efforts of the present. Daily affirmations and imagining the future the way you want it to be only seemed rational to me. It was excellent observing her life-philosophy, however "out-there" some might think it was.

Paul, a surfer from South Africa, works hard on the land every day. Lately he's constructing a cabin for guests and hopes to rent it out at some point. Surprisingly, Paul had heard of and listened to The Sea and the Cake and Tortoise, two not-widely known local Chicago bands that happen to be favorites of mine. He let me play his gut-string guitar on the porch in the evenings, enabling me to hash out my first composition in New Zealand. His land and lifestyle inspired me to write in a MAJOR key, without conscious effort, for the first time in years. For non-music-theorists, more simply stated: I wrote happy music.

Ruby was the purest child I have ever encountered. She skipped through the orchards singing familiar songs, often running around free and naked, fearlessly playing with various bugs and instincively picking the ripened berries off the plants she passed by.

[Ruby + Cockroach #1 + 2]

She had several pet ducks, whom she loved to feed and let nibble on her fingers and toes, and she had the imagination of 10 children twice her age. She often asked to be pulled around in an old wheel barrel (wheels detached, rope tied to it) that she imagined was her boat. She would sail to shops while making phone calls and dressing her stuffed animals in different uniforms (hand sewn by grandmother) appropriate for school, work, play or bed, accordingly. I would soon miss Ruby most of all. But of course I could't leave her without giving a back-hand Frisbee lesson...

During my stay with the Harris family, my birthday creeped up on me. My only wish before leaving the states was to be on top of a mountain for my birthday. While their tall hill wasn't quite a mountain, I simply felt on top of a mountain being at this point in my life. I was climbing mountains I had never thought I would see this early in my life. This birthday, for the first time, represented no turning points for me. Rather, it simply serves as a marker for onward thrust into a path I feel so confidently happy about.

Antonia (Toni) made me French crepes with chocolate sauce, berries, marscapone and other delights on the morning of 24. Little Ruby triggered the inevitable birthday song, and I sat awkwardly at the close-quarters breakfast table thinking about the situation. There I was, turning 24 in front of crepes-suzette, a beautiful family looking me straight in the eye, singing in a country as far away as possible from home. I know 24 will be an extremely important year for me and this was definitely a good start. I am so fortunate to be able to have this experience and I plan on taking full advantage of it.

I took bits and pieces of this place and family with me, taking note of their alternative lifestyle. Bags packed and thumbs pulling outward on heavy shoulder straps, I moved onward.

[High five. Later, Rubes]

But that didn't happen until I had my first Adrenaline rush in NZ, surely a moment of self-symbolism and conquering...