Miriam Lancewood

Miriam Lance would welcome to the South China Morning Post thank you so much for having me so you've spent the last almost been a part of the last decade living in the wilderness in New Zealand I guess what made you want to leave the material world behind well first of all we love being out in the mountains and we did spend a lot of time before we set out just tramping and camping walking but then we wanted to be part of that wilderness not just an observer and we thought about what is really quite a different thing to do and we thought we want to spend just four seasons see if we can survive like an almost like an expedition and that was only one year we of course we didn't know this will be seven years so you kind of continue there can you please I guess paint me a bit of a picture what is life like in the world in this New Zealand for you and your husband what life is like well we're basically living off hunting and gathering so we spend a lot of time hunting gathering firewood because we cook everything on the fire and then we just subject to the winner so if it's good we're there we go might go on walking and exploring might walk up a waterfall or you know of the creek and he might find a little lake on top of the mountain that maybe no one has ever seen yet so um when it is raining we have stuck in a tent and we wait and we might read a book some philosophy you know book that you're gonna read endlessly and still not on a standard yeah but what are some of the I guess the the major challenges you face living in the wilderness like you said you had to learn how to hunt I understand you're quite handy with the bow and arrow yes I started off with a bow and arrow and after two years I switched to a rifle because I found it's much more humane actually in a lot easier yes the challenge was hunting for sure in the beginning also the cold in the first winter in New Zealand Mountains that was about 1,200 meters I mean it's not very cold you know the waterfalls were frozen at times mm-hmm I'm here to deal with that and also doing nothing sometimes when it's raining we have to learn to do absolutely nothing and to wait is that was that something kind of hard to deal with at the beginning this idea of nothing and and dealing with boredom even when you're so used to everything being around you yes indeed and I find out it takes about two weeks for the mind to slow down in order to meet with the rhythm of nature mm-hmm and in that time you go through a period of boredom and restlessness I didn't know so we all found this art and this is quite amazing because the mind is quite fast living in them and the city in there with technology and dis quite an adjustment psychologically speaking to live in nature so you're in Hong Kong for the International literary festival you have written a book and it's called a woman in the wilderness what is it like for you going from the New Zealand wilderness to I guess Hong Kong just you're somebody or was it right if you don't trust this immense it's very exciting and I love to meet all these people and I'm amazed to find a difference in culture I just did a school session and the kids are so amazing I'm really thrilled and could you see yourself ever living in a city again living yeah not one bit living in the city I think it's just too crowded until busy and to keep saying for me I have to live with the trees but I love to visit only a week here yeah and and what has living off the grid taught it taught you about yourself about myself um I think when you live in the wilderness for long periods of time your psychological problems seem to dissolve rather than being solved by thinking about it by analysing hmm and instead of the mind being occupied with all your abstract things become sort of more empty and clarity comes instead so I I have a lot more clarity than when I set up ten years ago perfect thank you very much for joining me Miriam thank you so much for having me you