Beginning my off grid adventure...

 I’ve always been a fan of tiny hoses and the idea of living in smaller spaces. The typical McMansion (150m2-200m2) home on a small section in a bland, boring subdivision with covenants up the wazoo which dictate what you can or can’t do with your land, how big and what colour your house is, where you can park is defintiely not my idea of living. No thanks, I'll pass. Truth be told I can’t think of anything worse.

 A little over a decade ago my wife and I bought a small cottage/bach in Kakanui near Oamaru as our weekend getaway with the kids. It was small (60m square) with 2 tiny bedrooms but suited us. However about five years ago I had an addional larger lounge withbedroom above built- so there as a room for each of our kids who were by then teenagers. It’s now about 100m square and a comfortable place which is about the size of the houses we used to build in NZ in the 70s and 80s- 3 bedrooms and single bathroom. I love the place but do find that with only me living down here currently that the space is bigger than I need and could comfortably live in half the space or less. So I’ve had at the back of my mind a vague idea to maybe find some land and build another small space to live one day… well maybe.

I have followed the rise of the tiny house movement as it has grown in popularity I’ve witnessed the rapid rise in price for tiny homes as its  moved from a DIY focused subculture of self builds to one which appears to be dominated by professional building companies; which isn’t a bad thing but has changed the way the movement has grown- and also led to a sharp increase in the prices for homes.

One of the biggest hurdle to many tiny homes, apart from moronic council regulations making such lifestyle choices hard to actually realise for many, is access to land. So my thoughts were to maybe find some land without covenants and then look to build a small cabin on it as a getaway and maybe one day become a place to live.

What do I want

·       Some bare land, ideally with a view, in the country or near a small town

·       Water availability would be good

·       Near a lake or river ideally- I already have the place I live at now by the sea.

·       Somewhere with nearby bike trails.

·       Location? Central Otago or the West Coast.

·       No building restrictions/covenants on what I can build- I don’t want to “have" to build a modern home, I want a small old school bach/off grid cabin... or at least I want to develop one on the section in time.

 What do I want to build?

I live in the South Island of New Zealand and we have some stunning places for holiday  homes. in New Zealand we have a long history of small elf built holdiays homes called baches (or cribs if you live south of the Waitaki river), whitebaiting stands and maimai for duck shooting. tradionally baches were slef built wiht whatever materials were on hand and were where families got away fomr the tonws and cities to spend their summer holidays and long weekends.  

A traditional bach in the Catlins, NZ

A Whitebaiters stand and hut

Over time though the humble NZ bach has in many places, including Kakanui where I live, been replaced in many instances with ostentatious holiday homes with all the bells and whistles. However, there are still many baches to be found dotted across the NZ countryside and it is this type of dwelling which I am interested in. Indeed I see the tiny house and off grid living movements as simply the next wave of the traditional bach owners seeking tpo downsize oc create a simpler living lifestyle which many kiwis have always aspired to.

So I have a dream of a small off grid bach/cabin which I can start using as a weekend getaway but could also one day move into fulltime if I wished. I want something small, low key and ideally off-grid where in time I can hook up it to solar power and something that pays homeage to the baches of times past.

 Where to buy?

Two parts of the country have caught my eye. In the past few years my wife Julie and I have spent more time in Central Otago, doing the various cycle trails and enjoying the stark geography of this beautiful but rugged part of the country. Living at our old bach the Maniatoto, the gateway to Central from this part of the country, is only an hour away so I am fortunate that I can pop over there without too many dramas for the weekend.

 Unfortunately with the recent housing frenzy in NZ Central has also become extremely popular for people or Auckland and CHCh to sell up and retire to and the towns of Queenstown and Wanaka have both become increasingly overdeveloped, crowded are the most expensive places in the country to buy. 

Neither of these towns interest me at all but as prices have risen in these two centres so they have pushed up prices in smaller communities of Central Otago too. Furthermore as the cycle trails such as the Otago Railtrail, Dunstan Trail and Clutha Gold Trail have been established they too have added to the attractions of the area and made Central even more of popular as a destination, and this too has contributed to land prices rising sharply in recent years.   

Another option is the rugged West Coast and indeed last September Julie and I took my old campervan for a responsible camping trip up the Coast from Haast to Westport. While there I kept an eye out of possible places to look into to buy some land. Although we loved the Coast, and want spend more time exploring it, the reality is that to get to the Coast is a 5 hour or more drive to Haast or a 6 hour drive over Arthurs Pass from where I live so I decided it was too far unless I was to move over there permanently. Which is not on the cards currently. 

 So, in the end I decided that I wanted to find some land in Central Otago, and gave myself a search area of approximately 2-3 hour radius from where I live now. 

Craig