“…Living ‘off the grid’…”
“… Robert Long, 54, was living “off the grid” decades before the expression was coined, and the author of A Life on Gorge River: New Zealand’s Remotest Family…
… has remained that way for 30 years.
He and his family live so far from the nearest settlement … that it takes two days to walk to the nearest road … and then only after fording several rivers.
More recently, however, the South Westland artist and carver has had to make some compromises, because of his teenagers.
He and Catherine, his wife of 20 years, are now hooked up to the internet, first and foremost to keep in touch with their son, Christan, 19, a student at Otago Polytechnic, and daughter, Robin, 17, in year 13 at Mount Aspiring College in Wanaka.
The family own several cellphones, but limited reception means they can’t use those at home in Gorge River.
Their closest town, as the crow flies, is Milford Sound to the south, but the usual way out is via Haast, in the north.
Considering himself an explorer … Long may well have clocked up more kilometres than anyone in New Zealand since colonial surveying pioneers.
He’s spent three decades traversing rivers, beaches and tracks around South Westland and Fiordland …
… of which he writes about eloquently … and many of his journeys are barefoot.
An incurable optimist, he seems never to find himself overwhelmed by even the most challenging circumstances.
“You accept this is your life and make the best of it,” he says.
Living the remote life was a conscious choice…”
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