Miriam and Peter often use the word “trapped” to describe how other people live. They never intend to have children and rely on another modern innovation – Miriam’s IUD – to make sure they don’t. They say it would be impossible to live in the wild with kids. So are kids a trap? “For us it would be a trap,” says Miriam. “You have to have a regular income. You have to settle down.” She laughs: “It scares me just thinking about it.” Miriam describes how men they do meet on their travels will often suddenly open up about their personal lives: “They say they wish their wives would come out hunting with them or if they had a choice again, they would never have children. That was the end of their freedom, they say.” Men we meet say if they had a choice again, they would never have children. That was the end of their freedom, they say 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 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.

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. 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. 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) When the falcon rose again, I realised that it was not its strength or size that asserted its dominance; it was its fearlessness. (c) Five years into their nomadic life in New Zealand, Miriam decided to write a book about her experiences. The couple have since relocated to Europe, where they’re spending the year walking to Turkey; part two of their life’s dream of never returning to “civilisation”. So here we are in Bulgaria – three hours west of Sofia, upstream from a river where the couple can bathe, sitting around a campfire in a wood (the photographer met up with them earlier in their journey, in Bavaria). I’ve been invited for dinner and Peter is standing over a cast iron pot containing a bubbling bean stew. There are foraged wrinkly plums to start. It’s an exciting occasion for them: they haven’t seen another human being for 11 days. It’s 5pm. What have they been doing all day? “Nothing much. Waiting for you.” In the first few months of their primitive life, Miriam thought she’d go mad with boredom but she soon fell in sync with nature. Half of any given day is spent collecting firewood. They sleep as long as it’s dark. They’ve never had more energy.I'm not sure if I'm skeptical or envious or busy rolling my eyes or getting cringey or fangirling or... I took his hand and looked out at the valley and forest all around us. Peter had read all of the old newspapers and magazines in the hut from cover to cover 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.

The woman fled into the wilderness, where she had a place prepared by God, to be nourished there for 1,260 days. Miriam Lancewood is a young Dutch woman living a primitive, nomadic life in the heart of New Zealand’s mountains with her New Zealand husband Peter. She lives simply in a tent or hut and survives by hunting wild animals, foraging edible plants and using minimal supplies. For seven years, they lived this way, through all seasons, often cold, hungry and isolated in the bush. She loves her life and feels free, connected to the land and happy. And the woman fled to the wilderness, where she had a place prepared by God where she would 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

Recommended For You

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 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.

Then the woman fled into the wilderness where she had a place prepared by God, so that she would be nourished there for a thousand two hundred and sixty days (forty-two months; three and one-half years). 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) 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? Don’t write it down. … See it for yourself. Words are meaningless compared to direct experience.’ (с)

Special offers and product promotions

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 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) 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.’ 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)

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 The woman fled into the wilderness, where she had a place prepared by God, to be fed there for 1,260 days. It was as if heaven had pulled away from the earth and created a space in which everything was still, serene and complete. (c) 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) I looked at the crystal clear water, which cascaded down from the mountains. Yet after my initial elation, an uncomfortable feeling was creeping to the surface, a kind of realisation that sent a flash of panic through my body. It was the one thought that clashed with all my fantasies of living peacefully in the wilderness: the ‘what now?’ thought. What was I going to do next?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. 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. We’ve got to pay the mortgage or the rent,’ he said over his shoulder. ‘For a house we only see at night’