Mangamuka

Up at the end of the track the land rises to a conical shaped hill, not steep but gently sloping, ideal to build. We are only 5 miles out of Mangamuka, 150 miles due north of Auckland. The climate is perfect, warm summers and mild winters with predictable rainfall in September and October. The land, five and a half acres has a stream fed from the hills to the North East and gives a good flow throughout the seasons.
Land is cheap in this neck of the woods and lends its self to the individual who favours peace above all else. Neighbours,  we passed ours 20 minutes ago down the track, are few and far between but can be counted on since there is a bond between people who seek their own security, their own self-sufficiency and never the less acknowledge others with like thinking.
We've chosen a site looking West to catch the early morning sun and the ground has been levelled for the footings to go in. A house built of wood sends out the signal that we are still frontiers people using the natural materials that nature provides, adding only that special ingredient, man's ingenuity and imagination to construct.
The timbers for the uprights have been cut to size and should be here in just over a week when the real build can begin. The sound of hammering the nails and sawing the lengths of  timber will fill the valley but for now there is silence other than the distant sound of the stream falling over rocks on its way to the sea. New Zealand, at least this part of it, is in a time warp having preserved its natural integrity.   No mobile phone mast means, no internet, means real closure on the madness that is going on.
Electricity is produced by having ones own generator but I think the stream might be fast enough to drive a generator for the batteries. We get a reasonable charge from the solar panels and are considering a small wind turbine to catch the breeze that blows from East to West in the morning on most days.
This would be a grand place to bring up kids, plenty of space, working with the livestock, cows, goats and sheep, a pony to explore on, far from the supermarket and the package existence we all used to cherrish. I wonder why we left it so long why we didn't break the chains of conformity the dead hand of insecurity. Human beings have evolved from self contained family units to the package holiday where everything is taken care of and nothing accomplished. See you in MANGAMUKA