Growing up at Gorge River
I was raised at Gorge River, in the wilds of South Westland, New Zealand. 2 long hard days walk from the nearest road, in a small house overlooking the rough Southern Ocean.
My family is known as “New Zealand’s most isolated family” and my sister Robin and I grew up here without the internet, TVs, computers, play stations and game boys. Instead we had fishing rods, wooden toys, tree houses, a river, a kayak, snorkeling gear, surf boards and books to keep us entertained as kids.
Our closest neighbours are 50 km away, the closest shop 100 km and the closest small city 120 km.
Why We Live At Gorge River
Dad moved to Gorge River in 1980 after travelling to Europe and India and realising the world is to unsustainable. He wanted to live a life where you use less and live off what you can hunt and grow yourself. Back then this idea of living sustainably was far ahead of his time and people thought he was crazy.
Dad found the abandoned fisherman’s house as he was hiking past and realised this was a place far enough away from civilisation that he could live the way he wanted to without being bothered too much by society.
Join Mum and Dad for a walk through of their house
Mum moved there in 1990 and in 1991 I was born.
Both my parents wanted to raise a family away form TV’s computers, cars and all the other things that were so common in the mainstream world.
When I was a young child we lived on $2000 NZD a year. Most things that we couldn’t get at Gorge River had to be carried in from the road. Slowly over the years Dads art work has become more popular and we have been able to afford more luxuries.
We have a small airstrip that is perfect for small air planes like Cessna 180 or Piper cub.
How to Get To Gorge River
My friend Sarah walked in with me to Gorge River from the Cascade and we made this video blog of the walk. Click this link to check it out
The other way of course is to fly. This is a video of the flight from the nearest road at Cascade River south of Haast.
How We Get Our Food
For food we grow a huge vegetable garden, we fish most days in the river and ocean for blue cod, kahawai, yellow-eyed mullet, crayfish (lobster) and paua. When I got older I started to hunt deer but as a child we almost always ate fish for dinner.
Every month or 6 weeks we get a supply plane load of dry foods that you can’t grow at Gorge River. The 4 seat airplane lands on our small grass airstrip in front of our house and its always very exciting unpacking new food and supplies from the outside world, as well as our last 6 weeks of mail.
Check out This Video of collecting Pauas with Dad and Sarah
And here we go fishing and catch some blu cod
How My Family Makes Money In The Wilderness
My Father originally works as a deckhand on board local fishing boats in the area. Not long after I was born he turned his focus towards his hobbies, carving greenstone/jade and painting the local scenery, oil on canvas. This proved profitable and over the years he has made a living selling his artworks to people passing through the area. We are isolated but its still normal to have a visitor every couple of days. These people come by helicopter, air plane or tramping the coastline.
We also do a lot of possum hunting. Possums are introduced pest in New Zealand and their fur and skins are worth a lot of money. As a teenager I would always run a possum trap line and this is how I made my pocket money. And in recent years I have used money from possum hunting to travel with.
Mum has a sewing machine especially designed for skins and makes the possum skins into luxury throws, bean bags and cushions. Most of these get sold to the people who visit us at home.
You can see more of Dads artwork on our website: www.GorgeRiver.org
Mum and Dad have New Zealand’s most isolated art gallery!
Our Super Warm Possum Hats
"Going To Town"
When I was 3 my sister was born and I was too heavy to be carried out to the road end so I had to start walking! The 50km hike across boulders, over bluffs and through the forest took us 5 days going at 3 years old walking pace!
When my sister was 3.5 she also had to start walking. Twice a year we would “go to town” and it was always a really exciting time for my sister and I. On our return we would have too much food and supplies so we started to fly home by fixed wing air plane.
Now as adults Robin and I both do the hike that takes most people two very long days, in just 8 hours.
Robin and I hiking along the coastline. As you can see its very rough going. After walking places like this all our life we can now run over rocks like these.
We would stay in Haast, a small South Westland town and we were always really excited to attend the local primary school for a week and catch up with all our friends there. After we would go to other towns and city’s around New Zealand like Dunedin or Queenstown to visit friends and family and sell dads artwork. Sometime we would even visit family in Brisbane and Auckland.
So even though I lived in the wilderness, by the the age of 17 I had been to Australia 7 times! That’s more than most kiwi kids.
My family away from home
My sister and I did school my home schooling and later by Correspondence School, (school by mail that is available in New Zealand) and didn’t attend a normal school until just our last year of highs school when we both went to Aspiring College in Wanaka.
Going To School
I did home schooling and later Correspondence school (school by mail) until at the age of 17.
For my last year I left home, at the age of 17, and completed my last year of high school in Wanaka, at Aspiring College.
My first year at a normal school was challenging but very successful. I had to get used to living in a town and making friends and all the social challenges of school. This was made a lot easier at Aspiring College because about 1/3 of the year 13 students are new students to the school and I wasn’t the only new face! I made friends and had loads of fun. That was in 2009.
In 2010 I decided to go to Dunedin and study at Otago Polytechnic for one year. The course I chose was very relevant to my life: A Diploma in Outdoor Leadership and Management, which I passed easily and moved straight into a job sea kayak guiding in Milford Sound, one of the most stunning places on Earth.
Hiking with my outdoor pursuits class at Aspiring College
Why We Have Become Famous
We have always had a lot of people interested in our lifestyle. Even before I was born Dad was featured on a TV show in New Zealand. Every few years another camera crew would come to make a story.
We have become an example of how you can live a successful alternative lifestyle and it nice to be able to share this with the world. We never wanted to become “famous.” But its also nice to lead by example and show the world how to live differently and not be so caught up in the huge world of consumerism that rules so strongly in the modern world.
In 2010 Dad was asked to write an autobiography, A Life On Gorge River, and it was shortly followed by Mums side of the story, A Wife At Gorge River.
Both books were on the best sellers lists for months and there was a lot of publicity. Since then we receives emails (we have satellite internet now) from TV stations all around the world wanting to do documentary. My family has been featured on programs in The UK, Netherlands, France and New Zealand.
To date the best documentary about my family was made by for Channel 5 in the UK and presented by Adventurer Ben Fogle. Its 40 minutes long and has been shown on National Geographic in many different countries around the world. I have had people recognise me in Czech Republic, Alaska and Norway.
Unlike back in 1980 the world is now more open to people living sustainably and a lot of people want to know more.
I Was So Lucky To Grow Up At Gorge River!
Looking back now growing up in the wilderness has given me so many skills and opportunities that other people my age haven’t had. I feel very lucky.
Its easy to learn the skills needed to live in a town or city and I never had a problem adapting to this sort of lifestyle. However for others who want to leave the city and live an alternative lifestyle like my family its very hard. That’s why I am so lucky.
I can now live in any environment anywhere in the world. Not many people can say that!
Yesterday I saw the documentary by Ben Fogel about your family for the umpteenth time, and I also recently saw the previous first documentary again (so many times). When I was 15 I wanted to do the same and go to Canada to live in the wilderness. Unfortunately, the devilish system pulled me into an economically very unstable system indeed. After being a self-employed entrepreneur for +20 years and struck by health problems by this sytem, I got rid of everything in Belgium. Then I moved to the edge of a remote, sleepy French village, where I bought an almost Tiny house via the internet. To live a more natural, and therefore healthier, smaller-scale, simpler life. The desire to take that step further into the wilderness is still there, currently the system is still haunting me too much from my previous life where I was disabled for 11 years due to back problems and fibromyalgia. The system is so rotten that they couldn’t tolerate me living elsewhere as I wanted, healthier in a remote area surrounded by nature. Here I find the strength and creativity to continue towards a self-sufficient life. Thank you for being open to sharing your amazing life journey!
Humble. Dirk
I watched the TV Documentary of your Dad many years ago and recently found your Video clips on YouTube.
There is certainly nothing like seeing the world when young. I did and still reflect back to those days.
Living in NZ we are so fortunate considering the conditions how some others around the world have too.
Thank you for the interesting videos .
Stay Safe.
Thank you! Yes its good to get out and explore when you are young but I don’t have any plan to stop personally!
I’m glad you liked my videos. They are lots of fun to make.
Regards from Norway!
Hi I’m wondering how your Long family came to New Zealand as my great grandfather was Francis William Long from Swindon in Wiltshire?
Cheers, Sharon
respect to you & ur whanau from the hawkes bay Region of hastings i wish i was brought up the way you & ur sister lived ur doing awesome bro respect to you and ur family
I pity you & your family… damn, I’m a lousy liar…. I ENVY YOU… Why can’t I have had a childhood like yours… why oh why????
Hi Chris,
Thank you for sharing your story!
It would be great to make it done to Gorge River someday 🙂
Cheers,
Daan
Such a unique upbringing. It’s like straight out of an anime or movie. I’m physics grad student and my life is centred around technology most of the time. It’s so liberating when you leave that world behind to experience a more natural environment. All the best to you dude.
Eh. Famed family to youtube vlogs? Fame and more fame. He goes world wide yet fails to search for the True meaning of life: God. The true and living God, not just any religion. Instead, he embraces the world and its false promising future. I thought a humbling rearing would make him realize there must be something more besides what simply see and hear.
What’s god got to do with his life, nothing.
Upbringing from his parents are the TRUE meaning of life.