Blog
31 stories from our journey of blending technology with slow, sustainable living in Whangārei Heads.
Food
Learning is one of Mark’s superpowers, he can consume, understand and apply large volumes of information about a range of topics. This has been a huge asset for us as we’ve developed our land and our home. Last year, he focused on syntropic gardening – a method of cultivation...
10 January 2024
Food
Our kids eat all the strawberries we grow as soon as they’re ripe. A lot of them don’t even get the chance to ripen before they’re plucked by hungry little fingers. The good news? You only need four strawberries for this delicious daiquiri recipe. Our kids had a sleepover at t...
10 January 2024
Robot
If you have been thinking about switching to a robot lawnmower, do it. When we bought our acre and a half the kikuyu had well and truly taken over. There were no visible fences and when Mark walked down the boundary line in search of them, he sunk to his hip in the overgrown g...
8 January 2024
Internet
Starlink has been a game changer for our internet connectivity. When we first bought our property there was almost no mobile signal, we had to go up the road to the top of the hill to be able to send messages and make calls. We couldn’t be HiTech Hippies without good internet...
7 January 2024
The Bath House
One of the best presents I’ve ever bought myself is our Stoked woodfired hot tub. We originally planned to install a pair of outside baths, but then Mark discovered the stainless-steel hot tubs made in Wanaka.
20 October 2023
Food
Starting a veggie garden was something we’d always planned to do at some point, but the question of access to fresh food was top of mind at the start of the pandemic, so as soon as we could buy plants, we got planting.
20 October 2023
Water
Our water source was one of the first things we thought about when we bought our property. We knew there was no access to town supply, so securing our water source by getting set up to collect rainwater was a top priority.
19 October 2023