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Mijn leven in de wildernis: van de Achterhoek naar Nieuw-Zeeland
In Mijn leven in de wildernis vertelt de Nederlandse Miriam Lancewood over haar leven in de wildernis van Nieuw-Zeeland. In 2010 verruilde ze de Achterhoek voor een leven ver van de bewoonde wereld. Samen met haar man Peter leeft ze zonder enige vorm van luxe een geïsoleerd leven in de verlaten bergen op het Zuidereiland van Nieuw-Zeeland. In het televisieprogramma Floortje naar het einde van de wereld zocht Floortje Dessing het echtpaar op. Een inspirerend verhaal over durf, keuzes en geluk.
425 pages, Kindle Edition
Published February 22, 2017
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 183 reviews
September 13, 2019
Q: ‘The unexpected is often the most interesting!’ ‘Marvellous things that might change our entire life could happen to us, but you can’t plan for those things,’ (c)
Q:
I thought about how humankind had gradually grown tame; once upon a time, humans had been as wild and proud as this tomcat, and deep in my heart I felt that one day, in a faraway future, humans would be wild again. (c)
Q:
... enduring hardship and walking in beauty. (c)
I'm not sure if I'm skeptical or envious or busy rolling my eyes or getting cringey or fangirling or...
Miriam's quite the amazon. Adventurous in the naïve way reminding me of Jules Verne's 'Les enfants du capitaine Grant'? I'm sure I would have been entranced, had I read it when I was 7 or 8.
Anyway, were they living in national parks? I didn't quite get that bit. You know, building fires, washing with soap in rivers, dragging all that stuff around (buckets and tents and other whatnot)? If so, is it even legal?
Add in to that all the metaphysical thought adventures and the feelings that the author describes so vividly and the reader gets an unforgettable insight into the pleasures (and hardships) of the nomadic adventures.
It's oddly liberating to consider how we could call the whole world (or at lest a chunk of an island) a home. Soothing and agoraphobic. Wouldn't it be strange to be at home wherever you go?
Also, possessions. How does one really feel without any of the junk we accumulate?
Q:
‘The timeless beauty is just astonishing,’ I said shyly. ‘I want to try living without any barrier between the naked earth and myself. Cooking on fires, drinking pure water, sleeping on the ground . . . The wilderness might be able to teach us something, if we have time to listen.’ (c)
Q:
As I drove home, I felt euphoric. My heart was bursting with energy, and I smiled all the way. School was out. I had plenty of savings in the bank, I had New Zealand residency, and I had the freedom to live wherever I wanted. (c)
Q:
In my years of travel, I had never met such a bright-eyed, intelligent man who had so boldly traded his house and job for a life of adventure. The attraction I felt to him was not only because of his knowledge and wisdom, his zest for an adventurous life, his ability to live simply, or even his strong body; there was an undeniable spark of love between us present right from the beginning. It is a spark that has never gone away. (c)
Q:
Peter and I yearned for natural places; we were always longing for peace, beauty and space. In my eyes, there was no greater beauty than the uninhabited, rough wilderness of New Zealand’s steep and unforgiving mountains, extended forests, great rivers, lakes and wild animals. The mere sight of the mountains always made me feel very happy. (c)
Q:
I had grown up in a household of anthroposophy—a system established by Rudolf Steiner that uses mainly natural means to optimise physical and mental health ... (c)
Q:
I discovered it was much easier to accumulate things than to discard all the goods I had grown attached to, but when I looked at our two packs and our twelve buckets of food, I smiled. It was exhilarating to be so free of possessions. (с)
Q:
We had been living in the mountains for nearly two months now, but it felt like an eternity. During those first two weeks I had been so bored, but the wilderness had forced me to yield and gradually, day by day and week by week, time had slowed down.
If I live the rest of my life in the wilderness, I thought, I will have a very long life. (c)
Q:
I realised that my experience of nature had begun to change. I was tuned in to the rhythm of the forest, river and mountains. Beauty had become more apparent and intense. When I looked at the mountains, I saw not only their outward shapes, but also colours and moods. And slowly, over the weeks and months, I smelled the subtle breeze, the perfume of the forest and the approaching rain. I noticed changing clouds and delicate colours in the sky. (c)
Q:
It was an amazing feeling to sleep under the stars. (c)
Q:
... I no longer had any fear because our valley felt like my home. We often slept deeply for 12 hours, and the effect of so much good rest was an increased energy. After three months, I felt more energetic than ever before in my life, and this energy brought with it the delightful feeling of living in a very healthy body. (c)
Q:
During the cold winter months, I mastered the art of lighting a fire, and I had come to love our joyous companion; the fire was a kind of living being that always rekindled my spirits. ... It had taught me its main principles: it always needs space and air. And, once a fire is burning well, it detests being disturbed in its heart. Fire and human beings have a lot in common that way. (c)
Q:
The smoke was part of me, like perfume was part of a rose. (c)
Q:
When I entered Lothlórien, it suddenly seemed ludicrous to hurry. There was absolutely no logical reason to be so hasty; in fact, it was safer to go slowly. I stopped, looked at the beauty around me and realised that I did everything at great speed. It was an automatic response to my life in school and the workplace. Nature, however, had plenty of time. I discarded the invisible whip. (c)
Q:
To sit through a very quiet winter, even just once in your life, is very purifying—mentally, I mean. (c)
Q:
We walked to the rhythm of the rolling waves. On our left were endless dunes; on our right the infinite ocean. Our surroundings didn’t change for days on end, yet we were amid the most ancient movement of the earth: the eternal flow of the tides, coming and going with the rhythm of the moon. The wind seemed to drive the salty mist on ahead of us. We could never reach it, yet we were always in it. Nothing ever stopped the sea or the waves, the wind or clouds or beach. None of it had stopped since the beginning of time. It kept moving, and it kept us moving. (c)
Q:
When the sun set over the sea, the sky flaunted vivid orange and red clouds. (c)
Q:
When the wild horses saw us, they fled like wary deer. Their long manes and tails flew up in the air as they galloped at full speed inland. It was a remarkable sight. Horses are naturally very elegant, but these wild ones were indescribably magnificent. These free horses almost felt like a gift from Ninety Mile Beach. (c)
Q:
... we started to appreciate our nomadic wandering life.
Living in this way meant that everything was uncertain. We didn’t know what tomorrow would bring, where we would sleep, whether we would find good drinking water, if there would be animals to hunt. Life on the edge was invigorating. Moving every day demanded attention to the present. Yesterday quickly became totally irrelevant; tomorrow was impossible to predict, so we were left with the present. Slowly, our long walk was cleansing our minds of the past and the future. Even though we walked with a physical burden, the walk relieved us from the mental burden of time. This gave a glorious sense of freedom. (c)
Q:
I recognised that friendship is a precious coincidence. (c)
Q:
Mist hung in the tops of the trees, keeping the outside world out. The mountain guarded its tall trees, and any sound suddenly felt like sacrilege. Between the ancient trees grew little sky-blue mushrooms—thousands of them. Their perfect shape and colour turned the forest into a magical place. (c)
Q:
It seemed to me that possessions have a crafty way of possessing the owner. (c)
Q:
When the falcon rose again, I realised that it was not its strength or size that asserted its dominance; it was its fearlessness. (c)
Q:
The sun sank silently behind the mountain, leaving a last red glow along the tops of the mountains. (c)
Q:
This suddenly felt like such a luxury: having time. (c)
Q:
Birds flew slowly above the surface of the water. Nothing seemed worried about the rain. Everything surrendered to whatever was coming. I had learned to look at fear and surrendered to my shadows on the wall. I wasn’t afraid to look again, and again.
The rain slowly soaked through my clothes. This is the earth, and this is the rain, I thought. By accepting completely what was given, there was order and the world opened up to me. I felt vulnerable because I didn’t know what the future would bring, but I also felt the strongest I had ever been because there was nothing I could lose.
Many years ago, I had felt that everything had a place except for me. Yet, as I stood here on the earth, I felt for the first time that my feet were connected to the ground. I have a place: it’s here. I feel long roots growing out of the backs of my heels. I am firmly secured to the earth I was born into.
The wind strengthened and pushed me against the rock. I looked up at the misty mountains, the approaching clouds and moving waves. I felt the wilderness wasn’t just touching my skin; it was passing through my whole body.
My heart is like a wide-open window through which everything can blow free. (c)
Q:
‘Don’t write it down. … See it for yourself. Words are meaningless compared to direct experience.’ (с)
Q:
Suddenly we both felt the presence of another dimension. We were struck with awe. On that high mountain, we were witnessing something immeasurable. It was as if we were sensing the unspeakable energy that underpins all of reality. In comparison to this immensity, thousands of years of human history and sophisticated achievements seemed quite insignificant. In this light, even the existence of mankind seemed irrelevant. (c)
Q:
If I looked into the heart of nature’s rhythms, I could see that sacrifice was part of its cycle. All around me, I was aware of a sweeping power that had the ability to destroy living creatures so casually, but with the same movement could also create profoundly. I saw that same energy in the vast landscape around us. (c)
Q:
While looking at its eyes, I understood that beauty does not come through becoming, but only with being. The chamois was not working towards a better version of itself; it just lived. I, on the other hand, was always trying to become nicer, better, stronger, smarter and prettier, which caused me to lose my authentic self. I understood that the process of becoming disfigured my being. This chamois showed me, in that moment, that being is the most beautiful form of existence. (c)
Q:
I was not doing anything special, but suddenly it felt as if a lightning bolt entered my head, as if the right part of my brain suddenly opened, and with it came an extraordinary clarity. I sat down in wonder, and saw that the whole of reality was in fact moving like a kaleidoscope. I saw that everything, including my own mind, was constantly transforming; I was not really fixed in one place. I saw that this changing reality was an eternal movement in a timeless world. (c)
Q:
I spotted a big plant with yellow flowers and when I touched its soft green leaves I felt, intuitively, that these could have a medicinal property for the lungs. When I saw another plant, which Peter recognised as ragwort, I felt that it should not be eaten, but could perhaps have a use for skin treatments. We walked from plant to plant, and each one told us something of interest. I realised that in the past people would have had a sense for the medicinal values of plants, and that this insight was now rendered obsolete by modern science and technology. (c)
Q:
It was as if heaven had pulled away from the earth and created a space in which everything was still, serene and complete. (c)
Funny:
Q:
‘How many cups of tea do you drink a day, sweetie?’ ...
‘I don’t know. Maybe six or so?’ ...
‘OK. That makes twelve a day, a hundred and twenty for ten days, two hundred and forty for twenty days . . . So that’s about three hundred and sixty a month, or a thousand and eighty for three months.’ (c)
Q:
‘But how will you shower? ... Oh no, you have to come out once a month! At least when you have your period, surely! (c) Ugh, I have no idea how people managed to make it when there were no facilities or modern sanitary stuffs.
Q:
‘How will we know that you’re still alive?’ my mother asked anxiously.
‘You have to trust it, Mama,’ (c) Poor mom.
Q:
‘We will be so careful, and I will write you long letters. We’ll meet hunters who will post them for me.’
‘Will they do that?’ my mother asked, surprised.
‘Yes. Hunters are very reliable people... (c)
Q:
‘What do you think will happen to us?’ ...
‘I don’t know. I really can’t picture the future.’
‘Because it’s totally unknowable.’
‘Yes, it’s actually as though we have no future. Just the great timeless void, an infinite mist.’ (c)
Q:
‘This beauty and purity will transform the mind, don’t you think?’ ...
Whatever it might mean, this pure and wild place should change our consciousness.’ (c)
Q:
‘This is nonsensical! I am sitting in front of a fire and ice is forming on my back! What are we doing here?’ (c)
Q:
And so the idea was born to wash my hair with urine. (c) Well, at least they didn't resolve to drink it.
Q:
‘Do you feel transformed?’ I asked.
‘Yes and no,’ he said. ‘The reality is always different from what you think, isn’t it?’ He tapped the bottom of his stick against mine. ‘I realise now how small our minds are and how utterly limited our thinking is, relative to the vastness of all existence.’
‘Well, I feel transformed,’ I said. ‘I feel super energetic! Because of the long sleeps, or maybe the power of the mountains—who knows? Perhaps all nature can do is give energy, so that the mind can find a way to transform itself.’
‘Oh yes, I feel very energetic too,’ Peter agreed. ‘Mental and physical rest is so important at all ages. The art of doing nothing is undervalued, I reckon.’ (c) Cringey?
Q:
One morning I sat down on the wooden toilet... I heard my poo falling down . . . and then, to my utter horror, I felt a backsplash. A mixture of rainwater and shit had just hit my bum! Other people’s shit! I sat completely paralysed for a few seconds, digesting this nightmarish event. Then I jumped into action and ran whimpering through the driving rain with my trousers still round my ankles to wash my buttocks roughly in the creek. (c)
Ugh.
Q:
‘I guess some part of me finds it all meaningless.’ ...
‘What do you mean by that?’
‘Working your life away for money or status, fighting your way up the social ladder, buying more things that you don’t really need . . . All of that.’
‘And freezing in the mountains is a better option?’ ...
‘Maybe not ... But I’ll give it a try!’ (c) Ughhhhhh.
Q:
‘Well, it’s just that the wilderness makes me feel alive,’ ... ‘I would like to try it, to see if I can survive, to see if it transforms my mind and my body,’ (c)
Q:
‘I mean, you’ve had offers to work as a teacher, become an athlete or even a musician. How come a pretty young woman like you would choose to live in poverty and isolation in the mountains?’ (c)
Q:
I thought about how humankind had gradually grown tame; once upon a time, humans had been as wild and proud as this tomcat, and deep in my heart I felt that one day, in a faraway future, humans would be wild again. (c)
Q:
... enduring hardship and walking in beauty. (c)
I'm not sure if I'm skeptical or envious or busy rolling my eyes or getting cringey or fangirling or...
Miriam's quite the amazon. Adventurous in the naïve way reminding me of Jules Verne's 'Les enfants du capitaine Grant'? I'm sure I would have been entranced, had I read it when I was 7 or 8.
Anyway, were they living in national parks? I didn't quite get that bit. You know, building fires, washing with soap in rivers, dragging all that stuff around (buckets and tents and other whatnot)? If so, is it even legal?
Add in to that all the metaphysical thought adventures and the feelings that the author describes so vividly and the reader gets an unforgettable insight into the pleasures (and hardships) of the nomadic adventures.
It's oddly liberating to consider how we could call the whole world (or at lest a chunk of an island) a home. Soothing and agoraphobic. Wouldn't it be strange to be at home wherever you go?
Also, possessions. How does one really feel without any of the junk we accumulate?
Q:
‘The timeless beauty is just astonishing,’ I said shyly. ‘I want to try living without any barrier between the naked earth and myself. Cooking on fires, drinking pure water, sleeping on the ground . . . The wilderness might be able to teach us something, if we have time to listen.’ (c)
Q:
As I drove home, I felt euphoric. My heart was bursting with energy, and I smiled all the way. School was out. I had plenty of savings in the bank, I had New Zealand residency, and I had the freedom to live wherever I wanted. (c)
Q:
In my years of travel, I had never met such a bright-eyed, intelligent man who had so boldly traded his house and job for a life of adventure. The attraction I felt to him was not only because of his knowledge and wisdom, his zest for an adventurous life, his ability to live simply, or even his strong body; there was an undeniable spark of love between us present right from the beginning. It is a spark that has never gone away. (c)
Q:
Peter and I yearned for natural places; we were always longing for peace, beauty and space. In my eyes, there was no greater beauty than the uninhabited, rough wilderness of New Zealand’s steep and unforgiving mountains, extended forests, great rivers, lakes and wild animals. The mere sight of the mountains always made me feel very happy. (c)
Q:
I had grown up in a household of anthroposophy—a system established by Rudolf Steiner that uses mainly natural means to optimise physical and mental health ... (c)
Q:
I discovered it was much easier to accumulate things than to discard all the goods I had grown attached to, but when I looked at our two packs and our twelve buckets of food, I smiled. It was exhilarating to be so free of possessions. (с)
Q:
We had been living in the mountains for nearly two months now, but it felt like an eternity. During those first two weeks I had been so bored, but the wilderness had forced me to yield and gradually, day by day and week by week, time had slowed down.
If I live the rest of my life in the wilderness, I thought, I will have a very long life. (c)
Q:
I realised that my experience of nature had begun to change. I was tuned in to the rhythm of the forest, river and mountains. Beauty had become more apparent and intense. When I looked at the mountains, I saw not only their outward shapes, but also colours and moods. And slowly, over the weeks and months, I smelled the subtle breeze, the perfume of the forest and the approaching rain. I noticed changing clouds and delicate colours in the sky. (c)
Q:
It was an amazing feeling to sleep under the stars. (c)
Q:
... I no longer had any fear because our valley felt like my home. We often slept deeply for 12 hours, and the effect of so much good rest was an increased energy. After three months, I felt more energetic than ever before in my life, and this energy brought with it the delightful feeling of living in a very healthy body. (c)
Q:
During the cold winter months, I mastered the art of lighting a fire, and I had come to love our joyous companion; the fire was a kind of living being that always rekindled my spirits. ... It had taught me its main principles: it always needs space and air. And, once a fire is burning well, it detests being disturbed in its heart. Fire and human beings have a lot in common that way. (c)
Q:
The smoke was part of me, like perfume was part of a rose. (c)
Q:
When I entered Lothlórien, it suddenly seemed ludicrous to hurry. There was absolutely no logical reason to be so hasty; in fact, it was safer to go slowly. I stopped, looked at the beauty around me and realised that I did everything at great speed. It was an automatic response to my life in school and the workplace. Nature, however, had plenty of time. I discarded the invisible whip. (c)
Q:
To sit through a very quiet winter, even just once in your life, is very purifying—mentally, I mean. (c)
Q:
We walked to the rhythm of the rolling waves. On our left were endless dunes; on our right the infinite ocean. Our surroundings didn’t change for days on end, yet we were amid the most ancient movement of the earth: the eternal flow of the tides, coming and going with the rhythm of the moon. The wind seemed to drive the salty mist on ahead of us. We could never reach it, yet we were always in it. Nothing ever stopped the sea or the waves, the wind or clouds or beach. None of it had stopped since the beginning of time. It kept moving, and it kept us moving. (c)
Q:
When the sun set over the sea, the sky flaunted vivid orange and red clouds. (c)
Q:
When the wild horses saw us, they fled like wary deer. Their long manes and tails flew up in the air as they galloped at full speed inland. It was a remarkable sight. Horses are naturally very elegant, but these wild ones were indescribably magnificent. These free horses almost felt like a gift from Ninety Mile Beach. (c)
Q:
... we started to appreciate our nomadic wandering life.
Living in this way meant that everything was uncertain. We didn’t know what tomorrow would bring, where we would sleep, whether we would find good drinking water, if there would be animals to hunt. Life on the edge was invigorating. Moving every day demanded attention to the present. Yesterday quickly became totally irrelevant; tomorrow was impossible to predict, so we were left with the present. Slowly, our long walk was cleansing our minds of the past and the future. Even though we walked with a physical burden, the walk relieved us from the mental burden of time. This gave a glorious sense of freedom. (c)
Q:
I recognised that friendship is a precious coincidence. (c)
Q:
Mist hung in the tops of the trees, keeping the outside world out. The mountain guarded its tall trees, and any sound suddenly felt like sacrilege. Between the ancient trees grew little sky-blue mushrooms—thousands of them. Their perfect shape and colour turned the forest into a magical place. (c)
Q:
It seemed to me that possessions have a crafty way of possessing the owner. (c)
Q:
When the falcon rose again, I realised that it was not its strength or size that asserted its dominance; it was its fearlessness. (c)
Q:
The sun sank silently behind the mountain, leaving a last red glow along the tops of the mountains. (c)
Q:
This suddenly felt like such a luxury: having time. (c)
Q:
Birds flew slowly above the surface of the water. Nothing seemed worried about the rain. Everything surrendered to whatever was coming. I had learned to look at fear and surrendered to my shadows on the wall. I wasn’t afraid to look again, and again.
The rain slowly soaked through my clothes. This is the earth, and this is the rain, I thought. By accepting completely what was given, there was order and the world opened up to me. I felt vulnerable because I didn’t know what the future would bring, but I also felt the strongest I had ever been because there was nothing I could lose.
Many years ago, I had felt that everything had a place except for me. Yet, as I stood here on the earth, I felt for the first time that my feet were connected to the ground. I have a place: it’s here. I feel long roots growing out of the backs of my heels. I am firmly secured to the earth I was born into.
The wind strengthened and pushed me against the rock. I looked up at the misty mountains, the approaching clouds and moving waves. I felt the wilderness wasn’t just touching my skin; it was passing through my whole body.
My heart is like a wide-open window through which everything can blow free. (c)
Q:
‘Don’t write it down. … See it for yourself. Words are meaningless compared to direct experience.’ (с)
Q:
Suddenly we both felt the presence of another dimension. We were struck with awe. On that high mountain, we were witnessing something immeasurable. It was as if we were sensing the unspeakable energy that underpins all of reality. In comparison to this immensity, thousands of years of human history and sophisticated achievements seemed quite insignificant. In this light, even the existence of mankind seemed irrelevant. (c)
Q:
If I looked into the heart of nature’s rhythms, I could see that sacrifice was part of its cycle. All around me, I was aware of a sweeping power that had the ability to destroy living creatures so casually, but with the same movement could also create profoundly. I saw that same energy in the vast landscape around us. (c)
Q:
While looking at its eyes, I understood that beauty does not come through becoming, but only with being. The chamois was not working towards a better version of itself; it just lived. I, on the other hand, was always trying to become nicer, better, stronger, smarter and prettier, which caused me to lose my authentic self. I understood that the process of becoming disfigured my being. This chamois showed me, in that moment, that being is the most beautiful form of existence. (c)
Q:
I was not doing anything special, but suddenly it felt as if a lightning bolt entered my head, as if the right part of my brain suddenly opened, and with it came an extraordinary clarity. I sat down in wonder, and saw that the whole of reality was in fact moving like a kaleidoscope. I saw that everything, including my own mind, was constantly transforming; I was not really fixed in one place. I saw that this changing reality was an eternal movement in a timeless world. (c)
Q:
I spotted a big plant with yellow flowers and when I touched its soft green leaves I felt, intuitively, that these could have a medicinal property for the lungs. When I saw another plant, which Peter recognised as ragwort, I felt that it should not be eaten, but could perhaps have a use for skin treatments. We walked from plant to plant, and each one told us something of interest. I realised that in the past people would have had a sense for the medicinal values of plants, and that this insight was now rendered obsolete by modern science and technology. (c)
Q:
It was as if heaven had pulled away from the earth and created a space in which everything was still, serene and complete. (c)
Funny:
Q:
‘How many cups of tea do you drink a day, sweetie?’ ...
‘I don’t know. Maybe six or so?’ ...
‘OK. That makes twelve a day, a hundred and twenty for ten days, two hundred and forty for twenty days . . . So that’s about three hundred and sixty a month, or a thousand and eighty for three months.’ (c)
Q:
‘But how will you shower? ... Oh no, you have to come out once a month! At least when you have your period, surely! (c) Ugh, I have no idea how people managed to make it when there were no facilities or modern sanitary stuffs.
Q:
‘How will we know that you’re still alive?’ my mother asked anxiously.
‘You have to trust it, Mama,’ (c) Poor mom.
Q:
‘We will be so careful, and I will write you long letters. We’ll meet hunters who will post them for me.’
‘Will they do that?’ my mother asked, surprised.
‘Yes. Hunters are very reliable people... (c)
Q:
‘What do you think will happen to us?’ ...
‘I don’t know. I really can’t picture the future.’
‘Because it’s totally unknowable.’
‘Yes, it’s actually as though we have no future. Just the great timeless void, an infinite mist.’ (c)
Q:
‘This beauty and purity will transform the mind, don’t you think?’ ...
Whatever it might mean, this pure and wild place should change our consciousness.’ (c)
Q:
‘This is nonsensical! I am sitting in front of a fire and ice is forming on my back! What are we doing here?’ (c)
Q:
And so the idea was born to wash my hair with urine. (c) Well, at least they didn't resolve to drink it.
Q:
‘Do you feel transformed?’ I asked.
‘Yes and no,’ he said. ‘The reality is always different from what you think, isn’t it?’ He tapped the bottom of his stick against mine. ‘I realise now how small our minds are and how utterly limited our thinking is, relative to the vastness of all existence.’
‘Well, I feel transformed,’ I said. ‘I feel super energetic! Because of the long sleeps, or maybe the power of the mountains—who knows? Perhaps all nature can do is give energy, so that the mind can find a way to transform itself.’
‘Oh yes, I feel very energetic too,’ Peter agreed. ‘Mental and physical rest is so important at all ages. The art of doing nothing is undervalued, I reckon.’ (c) Cringey?
Q:
One morning I sat down on the wooden toilet... I heard my poo falling down . . . and then, to my utter horror, I felt a backsplash. A mixture of rainwater and shit had just hit my bum! Other people’s shit! I sat completely paralysed for a few seconds, digesting this nightmarish event. Then I jumped into action and ran whimpering through the driving rain with my trousers still round my ankles to wash my buttocks roughly in the creek. (c)
Ugh.
Q:
‘I guess some part of me finds it all meaningless.’ ...
‘What do you mean by that?’
‘Working your life away for money or status, fighting your way up the social ladder, buying more things that you don’t really need . . . All of that.’
‘And freezing in the mountains is a better option?’ ...
‘Maybe not ... But I’ll give it a try!’ (c) Ughhhhhh.
Q:
‘Well, it’s just that the wilderness makes me feel alive,’ ... ‘I would like to try it, to see if I can survive, to see if it transforms my mind and my body,’ (c)
Q:
‘I mean, you’ve had offers to work as a teacher, become an athlete or even a musician. How come a pretty young woman like you would choose to live in poverty and isolation in the mountains?’ (c)
September 8, 2018
Inspiring and irritating in equal measures.
March 11, 2017
Miriam Lancewood groeide op in een liefdevol gezin in Nieuw Wehl, een klein dorpje in de Achterhoek met haar twee zusjes Hanna en Sofie. Toen Miriam 10 jaar was verhuisde het gezin naar Assen (Drenthe). Na het behalen van haar diploma ALO (Academie voor lichamelijke opvoeding) ging Miriam naar Zimbabwe om les te geven op een school voor speciaal onderwijs. Na een jaar in Afrika vertrok ze naar India om daar rond te reizen. Na 5 maanden kwam ze daar Peter tegen. Een avontuurlijke man uit Nieuw-Zeeland, die zijn baan als docent op de universiteit had opgezegd, en als een moderne nomade al 5 jaar in India leefde., toen hij Miriam ontmoette. Eerst trokken ze door Zuidoost-Azie tot ze na een paar jaar uiteindelijk in Nieuw-Zeeland aankwamen. Na een jaar besloten ze hun huis in te ruilen voor een tent en te gaan leven op de mooiste plekken van het land: in het hart van de Nieuw-Zeelandse wildernis.
De cover is precies zoals Miriam op jacht ging. Ze leefden voornamelijk van de dieren, die toch maar gedood worden zonder ze op te eten, omdat Nieuw-Zeeland de dieren van vroeger zonder menselijke inbreng terug willen.
Er staat een korte voorwoord in. Daarna gewoon het verhaal van hoe ze eerst begonnen tot ze de trail gingen lopen. Daarnaast staan er een paar foto's in en een kaartje van de trail. En aan het einde een kort stukje epiloog. Floortje Dessing heeft een kort stukje meegelopen van de trail en heeft dit gefilmd. De serie heet Floortje Dessing naar het einde van de wereld.
Ik moet bekennen dat ik eerst de aflevering van Floortje Dessing heb gekeken en een interview bij RTL late night. Normaal doe ik het niet, maar ik kwam bij toeval bij RTL night terecht en zag ik haar. Een inspirerende vrouw.
Ik heb het boek met plezier gelezen. Hoe ze het overleven steeds verder uitbreidde. Zo apart dat er zulke mensen nog bestaan. Ze leven letterlijk zoals we vroeger deden. Heel erg bijzonder! Peter heeft Miriam heel veel geleerd en komt op mij over als een wijze man, maar af en toe ergerde ik mij dat hij soms heel cool deed tegen Miriam. Maar al met al vond ik het een inspirerend verhaal! Ik weet wel dat ik er niet geschikt voor zou zijn! Dus mijn petje af voor Miriam en Peter!
De cover is precies zoals Miriam op jacht ging. Ze leefden voornamelijk van de dieren, die toch maar gedood worden zonder ze op te eten, omdat Nieuw-Zeeland de dieren van vroeger zonder menselijke inbreng terug willen.
Er staat een korte voorwoord in. Daarna gewoon het verhaal van hoe ze eerst begonnen tot ze de trail gingen lopen. Daarnaast staan er een paar foto's in en een kaartje van de trail. En aan het einde een kort stukje epiloog. Floortje Dessing heeft een kort stukje meegelopen van de trail en heeft dit gefilmd. De serie heet Floortje Dessing naar het einde van de wereld.
Ik moet bekennen dat ik eerst de aflevering van Floortje Dessing heb gekeken en een interview bij RTL late night. Normaal doe ik het niet, maar ik kwam bij toeval bij RTL night terecht en zag ik haar. Een inspirerende vrouw.
Ik heb het boek met plezier gelezen. Hoe ze het overleven steeds verder uitbreidde. Zo apart dat er zulke mensen nog bestaan. Ze leven letterlijk zoals we vroeger deden. Heel erg bijzonder! Peter heeft Miriam heel veel geleerd en komt op mij over als een wijze man, maar af en toe ergerde ik mij dat hij soms heel cool deed tegen Miriam. Maar al met al vond ik het een inspirerend verhaal! Ik weet wel dat ik er niet geschikt voor zou zijn! Dus mijn petje af voor Miriam en Peter!
February 4, 2020
Gah. Still recovering from this book which is very incoherently written and left me very irritated at the woman in wilderness.
As some other readers here have rightly said - downright irritating at most times.
The plot had potential but it quickly lost it when I realized that she was just camping in the wild. If you love the wilderness so much, why come back to civilization every few months? Oh yes, to "restock food of course" and pack for three months.
Also every time she returns she tries very hard to "wonder at the modern world" - good food, hot shower etc. Come on, they are not "discoveries" for someone who grew up in a nice home in Netherlands. I was also quite done with the undercurrents of judgement and justification in trying to be black and white about everything, especially about her choices - wild is good, civilization is bad.
To top it all off, I found it very hypocritical to keep looking down on modern comforts yet keep enjoying them too and being in an "idea of wilderness" where she hunts and roughs it out like cave men.
Just. Gaaaah.
As some other readers here have rightly said - downright irritating at most times.
The plot had potential but it quickly lost it when I realized that she was just camping in the wild. If you love the wilderness so much, why come back to civilization every few months? Oh yes, to "restock food of course" and pack for three months.
Also every time she returns she tries very hard to "wonder at the modern world" - good food, hot shower etc. Come on, they are not "discoveries" for someone who grew up in a nice home in Netherlands. I was also quite done with the undercurrents of judgement and justification in trying to be black and white about everything, especially about her choices - wild is good, civilization is bad.
To top it all off, I found it very hypocritical to keep looking down on modern comforts yet keep enjoying them too and being in an "idea of wilderness" where she hunts and roughs it out like cave men.
Just. Gaaaah.
October 1, 2017
Ironisch genoeg begon ik aan dit boek omdat de deadline van de bieb er aan kwam. Dit boek gaat over Miriam Lancewood die met haar dertig jaar oudere man Peter in de wildernis gaat leven. Op de meest afgelegen en onherbergzame plekken in Nieuw Zeeland. Vrij van deadlines en moeten, zoveel mogelijk zelfvoorzienend, back to basic. 'Leven in schoonheid' noemt Lancewood het zelf.
Ze gaan steeds een stapje verder. Eerst leven ze nog lange tijd op één plek, daarna gaan ze trekken als nomaden. Met pijl en boog schiet Lancewood avondeten. Ze leren welke eetbare planten en bessen er zijn.
De bieb heeft dit boek gecategoriseerd als 'Nieuw Zeeland'. Begrijpelijk, maar ook niet helemaal. Ik vind het ook een spiritueel boek. Lancewood beschrijft op de eerste plaats een reis naar zichzelf. Hoe meer ze inpassen in de natuur, hoe meer moeite ze hebben met aanpassen aan de huidige samenleving.
Op den duur wordt het verhaal wel wat langdradig en gaat het in de herhaling. Meer spirituele ervaringen op meer prachtige plekken in Nieuw Zeeland. Bovendien is het ook niet bijzonder goed geschreven.
Ondanks dat, vind ik het een inspirerend boek. Het laat me met interessante overdenkingen achter over eenvoudiger leven en meer in contact met de natuur. Het is zo'n verhaal dat voor eventjes maakt dat ik m'n huis wil verkopen om met al m'n Boekenwurmpjes in de natuur te gaan rondtrekken met een tent op ons rug. (Dat ik nog niet één benodigde 'skill' heb om te overleven, doet uiteraard niet ter zake in deze dagdroom.)
Mijn leven in de wildernis' - Miriam Lancewood: ⭐️⭐️⭐️
Ze gaan steeds een stapje verder. Eerst leven ze nog lange tijd op één plek, daarna gaan ze trekken als nomaden. Met pijl en boog schiet Lancewood avondeten. Ze leren welke eetbare planten en bessen er zijn.
De bieb heeft dit boek gecategoriseerd als 'Nieuw Zeeland'. Begrijpelijk, maar ook niet helemaal. Ik vind het ook een spiritueel boek. Lancewood beschrijft op de eerste plaats een reis naar zichzelf. Hoe meer ze inpassen in de natuur, hoe meer moeite ze hebben met aanpassen aan de huidige samenleving.
Op den duur wordt het verhaal wel wat langdradig en gaat het in de herhaling. Meer spirituele ervaringen op meer prachtige plekken in Nieuw Zeeland. Bovendien is het ook niet bijzonder goed geschreven.
Ondanks dat, vind ik het een inspirerend boek. Het laat me met interessante overdenkingen achter over eenvoudiger leven en meer in contact met de natuur. Het is zo'n verhaal dat voor eventjes maakt dat ik m'n huis wil verkopen om met al m'n Boekenwurmpjes in de natuur te gaan rondtrekken met een tent op ons rug. (Dat ik nog niet één benodigde 'skill' heb om te overleven, doet uiteraard niet ter zake in deze dagdroom.)
Mijn leven in de wildernis' - Miriam Lancewood: ⭐️⭐️⭐️
August 13, 2020
De schrijfstijl van het boek is niet slecht maar ook niet meesterlijk, maar wat een leven!
Tweede keer: nog steeds een episch verhaal!
Tweede keer: nog steeds een episch verhaal!
January 9, 2018
I loved the book. It isn’t about a complete isolation from society. It is a book about being honest, brave, real and spontaneous. A book about doing what feels good and right. It’s about following your guts. The story is beautifully honest and full of interesting thoughts. It shows that the current way of living is not the only option and that the limitations are usually just in our minds. We just don’t ask ourselves enough right questions when dealing with problem solving or we lie in the answers. I love how Miriam always offers a dialogue instead of a one way criticism. Sometimes it felt more like a fiction as it seemed too interesting to be true. It made me feel more understanding and less strict in my thoughts. Once again my thinking became less black and white and more grayscale. Miriam could describe the emotions in such way that I didn’t blame her for making a seemingly wrong move. On the contrary I admired her for her humble way of living and it also made me reconsider my view of the relationships. I will definitely read it again.
August 17, 2025
Kreeg ik tijdens het lezen zin om in de wildernis te leven en duizenden kilometers te wandelen? Ja, absoluut. Werd ik ook gek van de kritiek op de westerse samenleving? Ja, dat ook.
June 7, 2017
SO good! Hate my job even more now. I want to be a wilderness warrior
December 11, 2017
★★★★★ (5/5)
A selection of my favourite passages from the book
· I feel tears well up in my eyes. We are waving at each other, touching each other over a great distance. I am looking at the wilderness and at Peter: the two dearest beings in my heart
· The wilderness might be able to teach us something, if we have time to listen
· I discovered it was much easier to accumulate things than to discard all the goods I had grown attached to
· There is only one rule with ideologies and that is the fact that they change all the time
· Just watching it calmed my mind. It had taught me its main principles: it always needs space and air. And, once a fire is burning well, it detests being disturbed in its heart. Fire and human beings have a lot in common that way.
· Mental and physical rest is so important at all ages. The art of doing nothing is undervalued
· Life had been put in a prison here; it was only allowed to grow a certain way. Human order meant control. The wilderness was the opposite: it looked chaotic, but had its own, everlasting order
· To sit through a very quiet winter, even just once in your life, is very purifying—mentally
· Somehow I had forgotten what I looked like, because Peter’s face had become more familiar to me than my own.
· What you want to destroy, you must first allow truly to flourish
· If you envision yourself as a tree, nobody can possibly lift you
· A timeless land protected by ancient rhythms, where humanity is obsolete and control pointless. A land in which the forest is a guardian and fire our closest friend, the wind a bringer of change and the sun our salvation.
· To him, every stone, bird and drop of water revealed one of nature’s many secrets
· We’re all born in captivity, conditioned to seek security instead of freedom, but actually we don’t know what freedom is because we have never had it
· ‘If we stop seeking psychological security,’ I continued, ‘there’s a chance that we might find out what freedom is.’
· That which is most powerful is subtle—almost invisible
· It’s amazing how nature provides everything, without asking for anything in return
· In a way, mortality is the price we pay for life
· I had the impression that she was studying our sounds, habits and patterns, as if she was some kind of weka anthropologist studying human-ape behaviour
· Your dependence and attachments have prepared the soil for your sorrow
· To hear a big stag—some weigh as much as 200 kilograms—calling in the quiet night was magic. It was as if their roars came out of a hidden canyon below the earth, so deep was the sound that resonated through the silent mountains
· The best skill in the world is to feel at home wherever I am, I thought.
· Every plant had preferences that could not be learned through study, only through instinct
· Walking over the hostile, hard ridges, where storm and wind were playing freely, gave me a feeling of insignificance that was strangely liberating. Only the present counted. It had a purifying effect and gently took away all the nonsense that didn’t really matter in the eyes of nature.
· I suddenly felt the world expanding. Everything was beautiful and made sense. It occurred to me that the meaning of life lies in aimlessness: when there is no focus at all, the world opens up.
· We were living with the weather and its moving beauty, with the delight and wonder of the sunsets
· Birds are the earth’s first musicians, I thought. All about me, high-pitched tunes lifted into the air like a fountain and were then replaced by a tapping similar to water dripping on rocks. As the day broke, the music grew fainter and the river sounded louder
· Simplicity, clarity, purity. This was a vision I had always kept with me, as it seemed the natural course of things in the world.
· What was this love and our relationship, really? Was I merely caught up in perpetuating a perfect image of it? Was I simply playing a role in a play full of endlessly repeated words and gestures? Was I tricking myself?
· The birds’ homecoming was accompanied by a deafening cackling, squeaking, screaming and howling—an unearthly and unbelievable cacophony
· any action derived from guilt usually just creates more confusion and distortion. It never solves conflict
· ‘Very strange,’ said Peter, when our visitor had departed again. ‘When I looked at you just then, you appeared so old and worn-out, but now you look normal again. Even the landscape looked kind of ugly!’ I was astonished, because I had felt precisely the same thing. ‘It is as if we were looking at the world through that man’s eyes.’
· Everything in nature had its own distinct colour
· While we talked, I realised how, in nature, everything is living: the trees, birds, animals, and even fire and the weather are lively. Everything exists in relation to everything else. A house, on the other hand, with its totally indoors environment, is quite dead by comparison.
· If I looked into the heart of nature’s rhythms, I could see that sacrifice was part of its cycle
· While looking at its eyes, I understood that beauty does not come through becoming, but only with being. The chamois was not working towards a better version of itself; it just lived. I, on the other hand, was always trying to become nicer, better, stronger, smarter and prettier, which caused me to lose my authentic self. I understood that the process of becoming disfigured my being. This chamois showed me, in that moment, that being is the most beautiful form of existence.
· I could see how I interpreted, judged and analysed my own thoughts, thereby restricting my own mind. I realised that these social rules were made in the past, and had nothing to do with the ever-changing present.
· Fewer possessions meant less anxiety.
· It’s a kind of permanent yearning, but it also gives me the energy to keep aiming for an ever-moving goalpost.’ I told her about the day I had seen the chamois and realised that real beauty lies in being not becoming. It had made perfect sense in the wilderness, but I now saw that in civilisation everything was about comparison.
· The moment that I walked through the door of responsibility I found myself in the room of obligation
· I started to miss the breeze and, above all, the fire. It felt as if I had lost the company of a good friend. The convenience of the heat pump did not match the sparkling beauty and warmth of a fire
· Time seemed to vanish quickly when I was behind a computer; the machine ate the hours away. I noticed its predictability created a sense of comfort, which in turn created a resistance to stepping into the unknown
· We all think we’re getting somewhere, that we’re making progress, but we’re in fact just struggling to keep our spot on the treadmill. People have become like sheep. Sheeple
· We’ve got to pay the mortgage or the rent,’ he said over his shoulder. ‘For a house we only see at night’
· It’s called comfortable slavery
· Other cultures have deities on the walls; here, we had The Clock
· Well, I reckon people have so little connection with their bodies that they need to feel pain to be reminded of their physical existence
· Life in this society is one great assault on the senses. We’re constantly overloading ourselves. We eat too much, because we can’t feel whether our stomach is full or not. We don’t taste anything, so we need more MSG and salt and sugar. The music we listen to—like the band just now—causes hearing damage
· The system in which we live is a forced consensus of a self-created monster
· Even though we walked with a physical burden, the walk relieved us from the mental burden of time
· It’s good to remember that, no matter what we do to make our civilisation secure, this volcano here has the last word
· Life was simpler without a lot of belongings that require care and maintenance. It seemed to me that possessions have a crafty way of possessing the owner
· To love someone is to give the other space to put down roots, grow tall and to flower
· when I see the place where I’ll die, I’d like to think that I’ll recognise it. Then I’ll know the time has come to stay in one place
· the world of academia, thought, concepts and ideas are quite overwhelming. It almost becomes more real than the natural world. But I don’t think there is order to be found in an abstract world. Even though outwardly the wilderness looks chaotic, I think it is within the natural realm that we find true order
· I had learned to endure, like the rocks in a river. I had learned to be flexible, like willows in the wind. I had learned to walk, to live a nomadic life. As a hunter, I had become wild and fierce. I had hunted for food by understanding—almost becoming—the animal I wanted to find
· The natural world is the one thing the mind didn’t make
A selection of my favourite passages from the book
· I feel tears well up in my eyes. We are waving at each other, touching each other over a great distance. I am looking at the wilderness and at Peter: the two dearest beings in my heart
· The wilderness might be able to teach us something, if we have time to listen
· I discovered it was much easier to accumulate things than to discard all the goods I had grown attached to
· There is only one rule with ideologies and that is the fact that they change all the time
· Just watching it calmed my mind. It had taught me its main principles: it always needs space and air. And, once a fire is burning well, it detests being disturbed in its heart. Fire and human beings have a lot in common that way.
· Mental and physical rest is so important at all ages. The art of doing nothing is undervalued
· Life had been put in a prison here; it was only allowed to grow a certain way. Human order meant control. The wilderness was the opposite: it looked chaotic, but had its own, everlasting order
· To sit through a very quiet winter, even just once in your life, is very purifying—mentally
· Somehow I had forgotten what I looked like, because Peter’s face had become more familiar to me than my own.
· What you want to destroy, you must first allow truly to flourish
· If you envision yourself as a tree, nobody can possibly lift you
· A timeless land protected by ancient rhythms, where humanity is obsolete and control pointless. A land in which the forest is a guardian and fire our closest friend, the wind a bringer of change and the sun our salvation.
· To him, every stone, bird and drop of water revealed one of nature’s many secrets
· We’re all born in captivity, conditioned to seek security instead of freedom, but actually we don’t know what freedom is because we have never had it
· ‘If we stop seeking psychological security,’ I continued, ‘there’s a chance that we might find out what freedom is.’
· That which is most powerful is subtle—almost invisible
· It’s amazing how nature provides everything, without asking for anything in return
· In a way, mortality is the price we pay for life
· I had the impression that she was studying our sounds, habits and patterns, as if she was some kind of weka anthropologist studying human-ape behaviour
· Your dependence and attachments have prepared the soil for your sorrow
· To hear a big stag—some weigh as much as 200 kilograms—calling in the quiet night was magic. It was as if their roars came out of a hidden canyon below the earth, so deep was the sound that resonated through the silent mountains
· The best skill in the world is to feel at home wherever I am, I thought.
· Every plant had preferences that could not be learned through study, only through instinct
· Walking over the hostile, hard ridges, where storm and wind were playing freely, gave me a feeling of insignificance that was strangely liberating. Only the present counted. It had a purifying effect and gently took away all the nonsense that didn’t really matter in the eyes of nature.
· I suddenly felt the world expanding. Everything was beautiful and made sense. It occurred to me that the meaning of life lies in aimlessness: when there is no focus at all, the world opens up.
· We were living with the weather and its moving beauty, with the delight and wonder of the sunsets
· Birds are the earth’s first musicians, I thought. All about me, high-pitched tunes lifted into the air like a fountain and were then replaced by a tapping similar to water dripping on rocks. As the day broke, the music grew fainter and the river sounded louder
· Simplicity, clarity, purity. This was a vision I had always kept with me, as it seemed the natural course of things in the world.
· What was this love and our relationship, really? Was I merely caught up in perpetuating a perfect image of it? Was I simply playing a role in a play full of endlessly repeated words and gestures? Was I tricking myself?
· The birds’ homecoming was accompanied by a deafening cackling, squeaking, screaming and howling—an unearthly and unbelievable cacophony
· any action derived from guilt usually just creates more confusion and distortion. It never solves conflict
· ‘Very strange,’ said Peter, when our visitor had departed again. ‘When I looked at you just then, you appeared so old and worn-out, but now you look normal again. Even the landscape looked kind of ugly!’ I was astonished, because I had felt precisely the same thing. ‘It is as if we were looking at the world through that man’s eyes.’
· Everything in nature had its own distinct colour
· While we talked, I realised how, in nature, everything is living: the trees, birds, animals, and even fire and the weather are lively. Everything exists in relation to everything else. A house, on the other hand, with its totally indoors environment, is quite dead by comparison.
· If I looked into the heart of nature’s rhythms, I could see that sacrifice was part of its cycle
· While looking at its eyes, I understood that beauty does not come through becoming, but only with being. The chamois was not working towards a better version of itself; it just lived. I, on the other hand, was always trying to become nicer, better, stronger, smarter and prettier, which caused me to lose my authentic self. I understood that the process of becoming disfigured my being. This chamois showed me, in that moment, that being is the most beautiful form of existence.
· I could see how I interpreted, judged and analysed my own thoughts, thereby restricting my own mind. I realised that these social rules were made in the past, and had nothing to do with the ever-changing present.
· Fewer possessions meant less anxiety.
· It’s a kind of permanent yearning, but it also gives me the energy to keep aiming for an ever-moving goalpost.’ I told her about the day I had seen the chamois and realised that real beauty lies in being not becoming. It had made perfect sense in the wilderness, but I now saw that in civilisation everything was about comparison.
· The moment that I walked through the door of responsibility I found myself in the room of obligation
· I started to miss the breeze and, above all, the fire. It felt as if I had lost the company of a good friend. The convenience of the heat pump did not match the sparkling beauty and warmth of a fire
· Time seemed to vanish quickly when I was behind a computer; the machine ate the hours away. I noticed its predictability created a sense of comfort, which in turn created a resistance to stepping into the unknown
· We all think we’re getting somewhere, that we’re making progress, but we’re in fact just struggling to keep our spot on the treadmill. People have become like sheep. Sheeple
· We’ve got to pay the mortgage or the rent,’ he said over his shoulder. ‘For a house we only see at night’
· It’s called comfortable slavery
· Other cultures have deities on the walls; here, we had The Clock
· Well, I reckon people have so little connection with their bodies that they need to feel pain to be reminded of their physical existence
· Life in this society is one great assault on the senses. We’re constantly overloading ourselves. We eat too much, because we can’t feel whether our stomach is full or not. We don’t taste anything, so we need more MSG and salt and sugar. The music we listen to—like the band just now—causes hearing damage
· The system in which we live is a forced consensus of a self-created monster
· Even though we walked with a physical burden, the walk relieved us from the mental burden of time
· It’s good to remember that, no matter what we do to make our civilisation secure, this volcano here has the last word
· Life was simpler without a lot of belongings that require care and maintenance. It seemed to me that possessions have a crafty way of possessing the owner
· To love someone is to give the other space to put down roots, grow tall and to flower
· when I see the place where I’ll die, I’d like to think that I’ll recognise it. Then I’ll know the time has come to stay in one place
· the world of academia, thought, concepts and ideas are quite overwhelming. It almost becomes more real than the natural world. But I don’t think there is order to be found in an abstract world. Even though outwardly the wilderness looks chaotic, I think it is within the natural realm that we find true order
· I had learned to endure, like the rocks in a river. I had learned to be flexible, like willows in the wind. I had learned to walk, to live a nomadic life. As a hunter, I had become wild and fierce. I had hunted for food by understanding—almost becoming—the animal I wanted to find
· The natural world is the one thing the mind didn’t make
May 10, 2017
Miriam Lance’s memoir Woman in the Wilderness: A story of survival, love & self-discovery in New Zealand documents the past six years she and her partner Peter spent living nomadically in the New Zealand wilderness. The couple has lived a simple, self-sufficient life off-the-grid by hiking the 3000 km Te Araroa Trail, camping in various National Parks and living in huts in regions including South Marlborough, Nelson Lakes and the West Coast. Without any plans, minimal possessions and an extraordinarily simple life, they live spontaneously and enjoy complete freedom wherever they choose to be.
Living simply is an important aspect of the couples’ lifestyle. Miriam describes living free of possessions as “exhilarating”. Being removed from society and technology, Miriam finds fulfillment in the few daily tasks required such as washing in rivers, building fires, hunting and cooking, filling her “heart and soul full of energy” with these simple duties.
If follows from living such a simple nomadic life, one becomes more mindful and present. Miriam testifies to this, tuning into the rhythm of the forest, river and mountains and seeing the beauty become “more apparent and intense” with time, through being present. Their daily routine demanded attention to the present. “Yesterday quickly become totally irrelevant, tomorrow was impossible to predict, so we were left with the present” Miriam says. Being present transforms them mentally, relieving them of “the mental burden of time” as it appeared to slow down and cleanse their minds, creating “a glorious sense of freedom”. Peter describes sitting through the quiet winter in South Marlborough as “mentally purifying”.
Both Miriam and Peter justify their lifestyle by contrasting it to city life, which in their eyes is a “self-imposed prison”. For people that value freedom like them, a conventional life with a job in a city is “imprisoning with its blinding, monotonous routine”. According to Peter, the predictability from living in a city “creates a sense of comfort, which in turn created a resistance to stepping into the unknown”. He adds “it is difficult for a mind that has evolved in human civilisation to reconnect with nature”. Miriam also makes compelling arguments for their lifestyle, for instance, “a lot of people work for years to save their money for later, but by the time they have enough to do something different they don’t have the courage for it, then it is too late” says Miriam.
The author should be commended for writing a memoir in her second language English; however, her detailed descriptions of storms and slaughtering animals became tedious to read. Whilst the author portrays her lifestyle of living peacefully in the wilderness as practical and feasible, there is very little mention of the struggles that accompany this lifestyle outside the obvious issues of the weather and food supply. Unfortunately, the author makes no mention of the emotional challenges of living this way and the pressure on her relationship from living solely with her partner. Her rationale for living this way based on the benefits of being present and having freedom are logical, however her aim to develop the skills “to survive the apocalypse” by following his lifestyle are absurd.
The author does well to describe a unique lifestyle and its effect on the individual in a very authentic way. Unlike Bear Grylls and Survivor, these individuals live this lifestyle by choice. Miriam’s memoir is one of few books regarding living in the wilderness for extended periods of time. Similar stories include Wildwoman by Crump and Wild by Cheryl Strayed.
Living simply is an important aspect of the couples’ lifestyle. Miriam describes living free of possessions as “exhilarating”. Being removed from society and technology, Miriam finds fulfillment in the few daily tasks required such as washing in rivers, building fires, hunting and cooking, filling her “heart and soul full of energy” with these simple duties.
If follows from living such a simple nomadic life, one becomes more mindful and present. Miriam testifies to this, tuning into the rhythm of the forest, river and mountains and seeing the beauty become “more apparent and intense” with time, through being present. Their daily routine demanded attention to the present. “Yesterday quickly become totally irrelevant, tomorrow was impossible to predict, so we were left with the present” Miriam says. Being present transforms them mentally, relieving them of “the mental burden of time” as it appeared to slow down and cleanse their minds, creating “a glorious sense of freedom”. Peter describes sitting through the quiet winter in South Marlborough as “mentally purifying”.
Both Miriam and Peter justify their lifestyle by contrasting it to city life, which in their eyes is a “self-imposed prison”. For people that value freedom like them, a conventional life with a job in a city is “imprisoning with its blinding, monotonous routine”. According to Peter, the predictability from living in a city “creates a sense of comfort, which in turn created a resistance to stepping into the unknown”. He adds “it is difficult for a mind that has evolved in human civilisation to reconnect with nature”. Miriam also makes compelling arguments for their lifestyle, for instance, “a lot of people work for years to save their money for later, but by the time they have enough to do something different they don’t have the courage for it, then it is too late” says Miriam.
The author should be commended for writing a memoir in her second language English; however, her detailed descriptions of storms and slaughtering animals became tedious to read. Whilst the author portrays her lifestyle of living peacefully in the wilderness as practical and feasible, there is very little mention of the struggles that accompany this lifestyle outside the obvious issues of the weather and food supply. Unfortunately, the author makes no mention of the emotional challenges of living this way and the pressure on her relationship from living solely with her partner. Her rationale for living this way based on the benefits of being present and having freedom are logical, however her aim to develop the skills “to survive the apocalypse” by following his lifestyle are absurd.
The author does well to describe a unique lifestyle and its effect on the individual in a very authentic way. Unlike Bear Grylls and Survivor, these individuals live this lifestyle by choice. Miriam’s memoir is one of few books regarding living in the wilderness for extended periods of time. Similar stories include Wildwoman by Crump and Wild by Cheryl Strayed.
April 28, 2021
Some beautiful and inspiring writing about what it is like to live in the wilderness. And I loved the sections where she seemed to have epiphanies about her life and how we all fit into the natural world.
However as the book went on I became increasingly irritated with her relationship with Peter - he seemed lazy, patronising and they had a weird teacher / student dynamic. Despite Miriam being incredibly independent and confident herself, she seemed so reliant on this much older man for all of her knowledge and self worth.
Also found some of the lack of respect for basic safety astonishing - like kayaking down rapids in freezing water in the middle of winter (with no experience) and nearly ending up in the river multiple times, hiking in dangerous conditions with inappropriate gear and only really using intuition for guidance - if they got seriously lost / injured is the NZ taxpayer supposed to spend hundreds of thousands of dollars rescuing them?!
However as the book went on I became increasingly irritated with her relationship with Peter - he seemed lazy, patronising and they had a weird teacher / student dynamic. Despite Miriam being incredibly independent and confident herself, she seemed so reliant on this much older man for all of her knowledge and self worth.
Also found some of the lack of respect for basic safety astonishing - like kayaking down rapids in freezing water in the middle of winter (with no experience) and nearly ending up in the river multiple times, hiking in dangerous conditions with inappropriate gear and only really using intuition for guidance - if they got seriously lost / injured is the NZ taxpayer supposed to spend hundreds of thousands of dollars rescuing them?!
March 21, 2018
I really wanted to love this book. I bought it after hearing about Miriam's life and the romanticised self-awakening she discovered after living in the wilderness. Mostly, I struggled with the tone of this book - while Miriam surprised me with her insightful descriptions of the wilderness having not been a writer before, I became quickly uncomfortable with the condescending nature of the prose. A lot of the time I just felt like I was being looked down on for being a city-slicker... and the things that are important to me and make up a big part of my life are foolish. Not exactly the kind of read I was looking for but, hey, at least it was honest.
September 22, 2018
Nice book but that Peter guy annoyes me a bit tho.
January 29, 2025
I love New Zealand, so I absolutely LOVEEE this book! ❤️
July 6, 2017
Door de uitzending van Floortje Dessing wilde ik graag dit boek lezen. De gewetensvraag is of ik het boek ook gelezen had zonder de uitzending. Daar ben ik nog niet uit. Het boek leest gemakkelijk. Het is een vrij gedetailleerde beschrijving van de prachtige natuur in Nieuw-Zeeland. Er gebeurt eigenlijk vrij weinig, maar de kalme cadans van het boek is eigenlijk best prettig. Geen hele spannende gebeurtenissen, geen bloed of ziekenhuisbezoek, alles komt steeds weer op zijn pootjes terecht. Behalve die geitjes dan die Miriam koelbloedig neerschiet. Of het huwelijk tussen Miriam en de dertig jaar oudere Peter over tien jaar nog bestaat, dat vraag ik me wel af. In alle eerlijkheid kreeg ik af en toe een beetje een hekel aan Peter de wandelende wijsgeer. Maar goed dat zal mijn eigen innerlijke blokkade wel zijn😉. Uiteraard komt er een vervolg want Miriam en Peter veroveren nu al wandelend Oost-Europa. Geitjes al daar, jullie dagen zijn geteld.
February 7, 2019
This book made me cringe so much. Miriam acts like she's done something incredibly special with her life, when she's had the privilege of just moving around and living in the bush a couple of months at a time. Often living in back country huts.
Imagine the state of the bush if everyone did what her and her husband did.
There are more interesting tales of living off the land
Nothing new, kinda boring and laughable at moment.
Imagine the state of the bush if everyone did what her and her husband did.
There are more interesting tales of living off the land
Nothing new, kinda boring and laughable at moment.
April 27, 2020
I first heard about Miriam in two episodes (filmed in 2015 and 2020) of a Dutch tv show about people who live 'at the end of the world'. When she mentioned her book in the 2020 episode I added it to my wishlist. I really admire Miriam, it's amazing how she and Peter live their lives. I liked how the book described not only the good things, but also the bad. It did feel a bit long and repetitive at times though.
December 14, 2019
Miriam (1983) is geboren in de Achterhoek en werkt als lerares lichamelijke opvoeding. Als ze 20 is, leert ze in India de 30 jaar oudere Peter kennen met wie ze een relatie krijgt. Peter komt uit Nieuw Zeeland en voelt zich opgesloten in de maatschappij en wil daarom een eenvoudig leven gaan leiden in de wildernis van Nieuw Zeeland. Miriam gaat met hem mee! Tot nu toe was ze vegetarier maar hier zal ze zelf moeten jagen wat ze helemaal niet kan. Ook kopen ze af en toe voorraden in winkels (van hun spaargeld) en logeren ze soms bij andere mensen. Gelukkig zijn ze als Peter ernstig ziek wordt op tijd bij een kliniek. Zo zie je maar dat de maatschappij ook best wel een paar voordelen heeft. Hoe dan ook, ze leven dus niet volledig in de wildernis maar gaat het meer om maandelange trektochten
In dit boek beschrijft Miriam vooral haar problemen met de jacht en het weer. Ze gaat niet echt in op de emotionele kanten van de isolatie en hoe dit voor je relatie is. Wel noemt ze eenmalig de angst om niks te doen en om alleen te zijn. Op een gegeven moment komt ze een gepensioneerde meneer tegen die vertelt hoe hij altijd is geleefd door zijn werk en gezin. Dat is precies waarom Peter de wildernis in wou en het zet je toch aan het denken. Het is verder vooral een avonturenverhaal met weinig diepgang en op een gegeven moment veel van hetzelfde maar dan op een andere plaats. Aan de andere kant is het juist fijn dat ze de praktijk laat zien en niet theoretisch doordraaft over hun motieven.
Als bioloog vind ik het mooi dat ze een paar keer benoemt dat de Engelsen destijds soorten hebben geimporteerd (zoals geiten en possums) die schadelijk zijn voor inheemse soorten en veel lokale bomen benoemt. Als reisverslag is het zeker geslaagd en goed geschreven. Daarom geef ik toch 4 sterren.
In dit boek beschrijft Miriam vooral haar problemen met de jacht en het weer. Ze gaat niet echt in op de emotionele kanten van de isolatie en hoe dit voor je relatie is. Wel noemt ze eenmalig de angst om niks te doen en om alleen te zijn. Op een gegeven moment komt ze een gepensioneerde meneer tegen die vertelt hoe hij altijd is geleefd door zijn werk en gezin. Dat is precies waarom Peter de wildernis in wou en het zet je toch aan het denken. Het is verder vooral een avonturenverhaal met weinig diepgang en op een gegeven moment veel van hetzelfde maar dan op een andere plaats. Aan de andere kant is het juist fijn dat ze de praktijk laat zien en niet theoretisch doordraaft over hun motieven.
Als bioloog vind ik het mooi dat ze een paar keer benoemt dat de Engelsen destijds soorten hebben geimporteerd (zoals geiten en possums) die schadelijk zijn voor inheemse soorten en veel lokale bomen benoemt. Als reisverslag is het zeker geslaagd en goed geschreven. Daarom geef ik toch 4 sterren.
November 21, 2018
Wat een prachtig geschreven verslag. Heel inspirerend om te lezen hoe Miriam Lancewood de natuur omschrijft in steeds weer andere bewoordingen zonder dat het saai wordt. Ik voelde de kou, de hitte, de euforie als het einddoel van een tocht was gehaald. Ik zag de natuur in zijn pracht en hoorde zijn geraas. Het was vaak afzien voor ze tot de moed der wanhoop die verdreven werd door de moed der doorzettingsvermogen. Op rustmomenten borrelen de wijsheden naar boven in mooie quotes. Kortom: een absolute aanrader als je net als ik van (wandelen in) de natuur houdt.
July 1, 2019
Lekker vakantieboek
March 20, 2018
Since 2010, Miriam Lancewood has lived nomadically in the wilds of New Zealand with her partner. They spend all their waking moments connected to nature. They walk hundreds of miles through forests, rivers, mountains. She hunts for their food with a bow, and a rifle. And she somehow does all of this whilst also looking like a mega babe!? Wtf??? On a scale of one to epic, how FREAKING EPIC is that?
I went round excitedly telling everyone about this story, expecting them to be instantly enchanted with it like I was… and they were SO NOT IMPRESSED.
Me: MUM LOOK ASDFASDF THIS IS SO COOL
My mum: So this couple have rejected technology and have given up careers which could productively benefit society, and yet their lifestyle is actually still reliant on technology and society? And moreover they can only afford to live this way because they have New Zealand passports and lots of savings? Isn’t that a bit hypocritical?
Me: this is a good point
Me: SIS LOOK AS THIS OMG IT’S AMAZEBALLS
My sister Jammy: Why do you feel the need to fetishise a conventionally attractive white woman who’s chosen to adopt this lifestyle as though it’s radical, when thousands of indigenous people globally have already been doing this since for ever? Except they don’t feel the need to make a big song and dance about it, and actually colonial white supremacist governments continue to socially marginalise and oppress them simply for the act of living this way? Shouldn’t you be paying attention to them instead?
Me: this is also a very good point
Me: BUT I’M STILL GOING TO BUY THIS BOOK
Reasons Why This Book Enamoured Me
It makes a point about following your heart!
This book could easily have descended into fetishising a way of life which many people have no choice but to lead, and for them is actually incredibly difficult. In fact, it's a ‘self-fulfilment’ exploration on the importance of individuals being able to seek a lifestyle that provides you with meaning and mental peace, not matter what that is.
I gobbled up this book and it led me to do a lot of soul searching. What really is the point of climbing the career ladder to earn money to buy things you don’t need? Can I be content with less, or different? What does my soul really long for? Am I brave enough to chase it if it means rejecting social convention?
Miriam is a BOSS
Whilst Miriam’s act of living as a nomad isn’t radical in a global context, for a privileged, middle class, urbanised individual to choose that lifestyle is definitely a radical decision.
Miriam and Peter’s lifestyle takes a ridiculous amount of physical and mental strength. As you can see from the book’s cover, Miriam is ripped. She spends most of the year round in shorts and doesn’t give a shit. She climbs over mountains in storms and snow. She carries all their belongings on her back. She hunts food with a bow and arrow, for gawds sake.
Continue this review on my blog!
I went round excitedly telling everyone about this story, expecting them to be instantly enchanted with it like I was… and they were SO NOT IMPRESSED.
Me: MUM LOOK ASDFASDF THIS IS SO COOL
My mum: So this couple have rejected technology and have given up careers which could productively benefit society, and yet their lifestyle is actually still reliant on technology and society? And moreover they can only afford to live this way because they have New Zealand passports and lots of savings? Isn’t that a bit hypocritical?
Me: this is a good point
Me: SIS LOOK AS THIS OMG IT’S AMAZEBALLS
My sister Jammy: Why do you feel the need to fetishise a conventionally attractive white woman who’s chosen to adopt this lifestyle as though it’s radical, when thousands of indigenous people globally have already been doing this since for ever? Except they don’t feel the need to make a big song and dance about it, and actually colonial white supremacist governments continue to socially marginalise and oppress them simply for the act of living this way? Shouldn’t you be paying attention to them instead?
Me: this is also a very good point
Me: BUT I’M STILL GOING TO BUY THIS BOOK
Reasons Why This Book Enamoured Me
It makes a point about following your heart!
This book could easily have descended into fetishising a way of life which many people have no choice but to lead, and for them is actually incredibly difficult. In fact, it's a ‘self-fulfilment’ exploration on the importance of individuals being able to seek a lifestyle that provides you with meaning and mental peace, not matter what that is.
I gobbled up this book and it led me to do a lot of soul searching. What really is the point of climbing the career ladder to earn money to buy things you don’t need? Can I be content with less, or different? What does my soul really long for? Am I brave enough to chase it if it means rejecting social convention?
Miriam is a BOSS
Whilst Miriam’s act of living as a nomad isn’t radical in a global context, for a privileged, middle class, urbanised individual to choose that lifestyle is definitely a radical decision.
Miriam and Peter’s lifestyle takes a ridiculous amount of physical and mental strength. As you can see from the book’s cover, Miriam is ripped. She spends most of the year round in shorts and doesn’t give a shit. She climbs over mountains in storms and snow. She carries all their belongings on her back. She hunts food with a bow and arrow, for gawds sake.
Continue this review on my blog!
October 10, 2021
Don't get me wrong, I couldn't live how they lived, but getting through the book was really painful at times. It felt judgemental and condescending towards people who don't have the luxury of giving up everything for the wilderness.
One point in particular that annoyed me was that actually, they weren't always living 'wild'. Such little gratitude was expressed about the people who opened up their homes and baches for them to live in for extended periods of time. Or helped them resupply when they needed to stock up for the next couple of months living in the bush. And what a luxury to be able to afford those resupplies and have friends who were so generous - not everyone would have access to that.
There's also many moments of pure schadenfreude which made me really uncomfortable.
That being said, there were moments of profundity and reflections that while they felt forced and came across a bit conceited, the ideas did come up in my mind multiple times after reading. And I suppose that's what you're looking for when reading this - a fresh perspective, new insights and a different way of living.
One point in particular that annoyed me was that actually, they weren't always living 'wild'. Such little gratitude was expressed about the people who opened up their homes and baches for them to live in for extended periods of time. Or helped them resupply when they needed to stock up for the next couple of months living in the bush. And what a luxury to be able to afford those resupplies and have friends who were so generous - not everyone would have access to that.
There's also many moments of pure schadenfreude which made me really uncomfortable.
That being said, there were moments of profundity and reflections that while they felt forced and came across a bit conceited, the ideas did come up in my mind multiple times after reading. And I suppose that's what you're looking for when reading this - a fresh perspective, new insights and a different way of living.
March 30, 2019
I loved the descriptions of NZ wilderness and wildlife; did not realise there was so many feral animals affecting the wilderness. The voice was very strong and evocative; I found I could imagine myself camping out (and I am no camper or hiker). The book was compelling - and I would read more about her different lifestyle. And how amazing is her ability to endure the cold?
The patronising superiority was irksome (was that a Dutch thing or her personal blindness?) Her food, her gun, her bow and arrows, car, helicopter and plane flights all the result of civilisation and many people working, being exploited even. And wilderness and nature being destroyed. Seen the impact of mining? And oil extraction? Flights and metal on her gun and plastic on her sandals and equipment- none would be possible without mining. Hard to acknowledge that our life, however minimalist and low impact, exists based on the exploitation of others and on the environment. That to me was what was lacking, given she goes on about clarity and self-realisation.
The patronising superiority was irksome (was that a Dutch thing or her personal blindness?) Her food, her gun, her bow and arrows, car, helicopter and plane flights all the result of civilisation and many people working, being exploited even. And wilderness and nature being destroyed. Seen the impact of mining? And oil extraction? Flights and metal on her gun and plastic on her sandals and equipment- none would be possible without mining. Hard to acknowledge that our life, however minimalist and low impact, exists based on the exploitation of others and on the environment. That to me was what was lacking, given she goes on about clarity and self-realisation.
June 18, 2017
I had heard a little in the media about Miriam and her book coming out.
This book certainly is a love story - Miriam and Peter as well as Miriam and New Zealand's wilderness. Her tales of hunting, tramping and camping across all the season's reminds me of Crumpy - less corse and blokey of course. I enjoyed these travels and could almost hear and smell the surroundings.
I am not really one for deep and meaningful conversations, so the holistic and spiritual aspects were a bit lost on me. And I wonder how much of the conversations had, are realistic accounts of conversation or idealistic folly, as the book was written after and surely a diary or a memory cannot recall word for word what was said six years earlier.
This book certainly is a love story - Miriam and Peter as well as Miriam and New Zealand's wilderness. Her tales of hunting, tramping and camping across all the season's reminds me of Crumpy - less corse and blokey of course. I enjoyed these travels and could almost hear and smell the surroundings.
I am not really one for deep and meaningful conversations, so the holistic and spiritual aspects were a bit lost on me. And I wonder how much of the conversations had, are realistic accounts of conversation or idealistic folly, as the book was written after and surely a diary or a memory cannot recall word for word what was said six years earlier.
January 24, 2019
This is a great book because of its uniqueness, I never have come across with stories of people living this kind of life and it's amazing to find out about it. I think Miriam and Peter are very brave and I love what they do. One thing that upset me a bit was that Miriam for being the young and consequently the physically strong one and also for being a woman was the most active one in all areas, maybe this was something they both agree on I imagine, but from hunting to hitchhiking to writing a book among others she seems to get from my point of view the best, most exciting jobs. At a time when we are hearing constantly about women's discrimination, something I agree with to a certain extend, I find so many arguments to point out that men don't have it easy and suffer discrimination too.
August 22, 2017
Miriam Lancewood and her partner Peter have lived in back-country New Zealand for the past six years. Depending on the weather, they either sleep in a tent, or they use one of the Dept. of Conservation huts. They’ve learned to live off the land, hunting with a bow and arrow, trapping, skinning and butchering pest animals for meat, growing vegetables and foraging for edible plants. It initially started for Lancewood, with the thought that she lacked the skills to survive an apocalypse and now the pair have come to embrace the lifestyle and love living off the grid. If you like books about the wilderness, hunting or nature then you will love this.
February 23, 2023
The greatest strength of this memoir is honesty. I liked how the writer reveals information about her fears, insecurities, and failures. She's not a good writer, but reading about their feelings is enlightening.
A warning to the would be readers: this book is not an account of survival. There's nothing particularly survivaly about it. The author and her partner are swaggies that leave the comfort of their home and spend many years traveling or staying in cottages, and 'survive' by shopping and hunting their food.
A warning to the would be readers: this book is not an account of survival. There's nothing particularly survivaly about it. The author and her partner are swaggies that leave the comfort of their home and spend many years traveling or staying in cottages, and 'survive' by shopping and hunting their food.
April 18, 2017
Captivating but nostalgic and slightly unrealistic but a good read 😀rose coloured glasses all the way but the descriptions of the wilderness are fantastic
May 24, 2017
Great to read about NZ wilderness and how a couple lived off the grid for a few years. Not a polished writing style, but that didn't detract from my overall enjoyment of the story.
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