Want to move to the land of Hobbits? Here’s how

By Patty Ann Malley

Beautiful New Zealand
Beautiful New Zealand

A packaged deal or a life-altering steal?

SF Gate reports, “New Zealand town with ‘too many jobs’ offering packages of land and homes for $165k.”

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That’s right! New Zealand, the land of elves and hobbits, already the fantasy destination of those enthralled by a simpler – and stunningly beautiful – life is apparently selling the real thing. Cheap!

Only eight short minutes from the coast, the town of Kaitangata, on New Zealand’s South Island, has an abundance of lush landscapes, rolling hills, and peaceful retreats. Enticing, no?

“This is an old-fashioned community, we don’t lock our houses, we let kids run free,” a local dairy farmer and third-generation native named Evan Dick told The Guardian.

The only thing missing for those interested in making such a paradise their permanent residence would be a steady job. But with a population of only 800, Kaitangata has that covered, too.

“We have got youth unemployment down to two,” Mayor Bryan Cadogan says. “Not 2 percent – just two unemployed young people.”

“The small town,” according to SFGate, “Is heavily involved in necessary industries relating to dairy processing and freezing works, which more than fill the area’s economic needs. In this very unique case, that presents a real problem: there are around 1,000 vacant jobs and too much affordable housing for the residents to fill. So in response to this peculiar crisis, Cadogan and the town’s bank, lawyers, and community services are launching a recruitment campaign to try and lure candidates to the area with housing and land packages costing only NZ$230,000, or almost $165,000 U.S. – a far cry from the $1 million homes in the Bay Area.”

And still a good deal if one is seeking a home in paradise.

“The Mayor’s office has issued the below announcement about the housing and land packages:

If you are genuinely interested in the house and land packages in Kaitangata, which are on sale for $230,000 or want to know more about working and living in our district, and if you live outside of New Zealand the first thing you will need to do is check out our immigration rules to find out if you’re eligible to live and work [at this link].

If you do meet the criteria and you’d like to know more about the affordable House and Land packages ON SALE in Kaitangata, you need to visit this link to view the prospectus.



Seeking a simpler, simple life? Try Neolithic times!

Sunnyskyz would have you “Prepare for Zen as you watch this guy” – the mysterious bushman dubbed “Prim” by the Sydney Morning Herald – “build a grass hut in the woods.”

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This hut video is the latest in the wildly – pun intended – popular Primitive Technology tutorials that have taken YouTube by storm.

The mysterious Queenslander
The mysterious Queenslander

“Since he uploaded his first video a little over a month ago,” the SMH reported back in July of 2015, “The mysterious Queenslander behind the Primitive Technology channel has garnered more than five million views for his surprisingly watchable lessons on how to make stone axes, various shelters, pottery, fire, a chimney, bed and woodshed – all without a word from the taciturn star.”

The YouTube channel has nearly 2 million subscribers today and tens of millions of views.

And why not? While some seek the simple life to disengage in the hubbub of modern technology that all too often leaves one feeling less than human, there remains the fear that technology run amok could render our world quite broken … the result being less humans! Without survival skills, the same “Prim” demonstrates for our ready consumption now, life, that is simply being able to survive at all, may prove to be quite complicated.

So just in case you missed the lesson on the video, here’s the accompanying text to give you the general idea of how to get started building your future dream home:

I built this grass hut up on a ridge. It’s roughly parallel with the tiled hut and wattle and daub hut that are a couple of hundred meters away down in a valley. I built it on a ridge to get away from mosquitoes in wet weather. This project took 7 days to make. I looked for a spot and cleared it on the first day, built the frame on the second, and spent the next 5 collecting grass. Grass is difficult to collect in this dry forest and I had to climb further into the mountain to get it.

The design is a simple pointed dome that’s easy to build. The tools used were simply sharp stones and a digging stick. It’s 2.5 m wide and 2 m tall. 8 lawyer cane strips were driven into the ground to form the ribs of the structure and hoops of cane were put over this to attach the grass to. Vine was used to tie the frame together and to tie handfuls of long grass to it. When the hut was almost finished a cap was made and lifted onto the top of the dome to finish it.

This hut is easy to build and houses a large volume. The shape is wind resistant and strong for its materials. Gaps can be seen in the thatch but not if viewing from directly underneath meaning that it should shed rain well. A fire should be possible in the hut as long as it’s small and kept in a pit in the center. The reason the hut took so long is due to the scarcity of grass on the hill. It could be built much quicker in a field.



Simple life

Is life too complicated?

Simply haven’t got the time for a vacation? Cut down complications to better enjoy where you are and what you already have.

Becoming Minimalist suggests actively paring down the following:

  1. Your Possessions
  2. Your Time Commitments
  3. Your Goals
  4. Your Negative
  5. Your Debt
  6. Your Words
  7. Your Artificial Ingredients
  8. Your Screen Time
  9. Your Connections to the World
  10. Your Multi-Tasking

What’s on your list?

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Patty Ann Malley

Patty Ann Malley is a wife, mother and wanderer. The youngest of eight in a family that was firmly planted in one spot, she’s spent the last 29 years changing addresses (but not husbands), following jobs. Her careers have included retail, advertising, public relations, restaurant, catechist and ad-hoc needs-must fill-in-the-blank. She’s gone from being a wild child to a child of God. Her eternal question (“Are we there yet?”) has yet to be answered. Read more of Patty Ann Malley's articles here.


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