New member from the Far North of New Zealand

[vindictivemob]

Hi. I am a Possum hunter living in a tent under a canvas truck cover up in the hills of the beautiful Raetea Forest. Not to be confused with Opossums that most of you will know. Our possums were introduced from Australia and are now a major pest throughout New Zealand. I live in the Maungataniwha Ranges in the Far North. Above me are massive cliffs with rare bats. Behind me are huge native trees wider than a car. Below me is a beautiful waterfall with the most purest water pooring down the valley. There are plenty of freshwater crayfish (koura), native trout (kokopu) and eel (tuna) living in the stream. I have got a nice garden with veges just about ready. I have tomatoes, cucumber, zucchini, rocket, lettuce, silverbeet, potatoes, pumpkin, corn, pineapples, parsley, strawberries and some fruit trees. Pawpaw, peaches, plums, bananas, tamarillos, avacados, mangos, african guavas and passionfruit. There are wild pigs and possums to hunt for sausage meat and an amazing variety of bird life. There are kiwi breeding close to my camp. Plenty of native owls (ruru), grey warbler (riroriro), wood pigeons (kereru), robins, bellbirds, tui, yellowheads and many more. I wake up to a beautiful bird song every day. I have been trapping and shooting the pests that cause a lot of damage to the native bush and wildlife. Rats, stoats, mice, wild cats, and possums. I am make possages (possum sausages) and go on regular hunting and fishing adventures, catching many varieties of fish including snapper, mullet, kahawai and gathering big fat oysters, mussels, paua, kina, pipis and other shellfish. I don't shop at the supermarket and try to live off the land and sea as much as possible. I run my phone and radio off a car battery and am working on an alternative power supply from the waterfall. I am a volunteer for St John Ambulance, The New Zealand Rural Fire Force, Far North Land Search and Rescue and the Far North Coastguard. Thankyou, I thought I'd better introduce myself to everyone, Cheers.

[myakka]

Welcome aboard!

[paintball]

Welcome to the site... lots to learn here. Sounds like we can learn some things from you as well.

[Morgan101]

Welcome from Missouri. Good to have you with us.

[Buggyout]

Man! It sounds as if you live in paradise! I would like to hear more from you, especially how you plan to use the waterfall as a power source!

WELCOME ABOARD!!!

-Buggy

[rabunmom]

Welcome from south Alabama

[Chefsimms]

Welcome to the forum from TN...

[Paratrooper89]

Welcome abroad !

[vinnie]

Welcome from southern Minnesota. Looking forward to hearing more.

[vindictivemob]

Thanks for the warm welcome. Great to be a part of this forum. It is always nice to communicate with people once and a while. I am just sitting down to dinner. Wild goat that I shot and veges from the garden tonight with a glass of home made grape wine. I have lived in a tent most of my life, so I have learned how to make the outdoors as comfortable as possible. I am intending on building a small hut before winter, so I can really be living the forest life in style. I don't make much money, but I get most of what I need right here. I refuse to shop at the supermarket as I disagree with the whole idea of one person at the top getting all of the towns money and leave the small family businesses to close down. I will post some pictures of where I live when I can figure out how to upload them from my new phone. Cheers, VM

[Diesel]

welcome, please be sure to start a new thread about your lifestyle and adventures and share pics, I know the folks here would like to see them

[Schneb]

I, too, am eager to hear more about anything and everything in your situation.

One item that stuck out: you mention having paw-paws and their natural range includes where I'm at here in Michigan, and I've thought of planting such now and then. What do you do with yours? I've read that I'd need 3 or so to have them pollinated. Any guidance on how you grow yours would be welcome (or from anyone else, for that matter).

But in any case, welcome to the site! Hope you enjoy it.

[Applejack]

Hello and welcome to the forum.

[RICHFL]

Welcome to the forum, I currently live in NE Florida.


Read and learn about subjects that interest you. When you have the time,
write back with questions or about your experiences. Remember you are
not alone.

[vindictivemob]

You are lucky to have Pawpaw growing conditions. Tropical Pawpaw don't naturally grow here and it is a new challenge of mine to get some happening. I have been growing Mountain Pawpaw for years and have been crossing different varieties with babako and I have come up with a pink flowing orange fruiting trees. The fruit is small, but I intend on crossing it with a yellow larger fruiting variety and see what happens. I am getting the tropical varieties started now and yes they do need male and female flowers to produce, so plant plenty and grow more every year as the larger ones will become too tall to reach the fruit and they have a limited lifespan. As for producing power from my stream, I am thinking I will go for a big waterwheel at the waterfall and a peltin wheel closer to the house I will later build. I have designed a house shaped like a mushroom. 3 storys high with a huge deck around the top floor, but I will have to wait for my last property to sell first to be able to afford it. In the mean time, I will just knock up a small hut or maybe a treehouse. I have lived in a tree on council land for over a year about 10 years ago and I really enjoyed it. It had a fireplace, a tv, a bucket on a rope to collect water from the beautiful river below me and a loft overhanging it to sleep in. There are some nice big suitable trees up here. Thanks again for the warm welcome. Feel free to ask any questions about anything that I am doing.