I consider myself an artist and the Living in Peace project is my current artwork.
The whole thing is what I'm working on.
Karamea really inspires people. It's a place of incredible natural beauty.
It's like a geographical island.
You've got the Kauranga National Park on three sides, the Tasman on the west.
One of the really most scenic places in New Zealand.
We've had resident artists come and stay here.
All of them have found new direction in their work as a result of being here and being inspired by the nature in Karamea.
I really believe in international travel.
I just think it's the best form of self-education you can possibly have.
Living in Japan for me was a brilliantly mind-expanding experience.
What I really got from that was the understanding of who I was as a person.
I want to offer that opportunity to other people, to other travellers.
All of you guys have come from the Northern Hemisphere, which is a long way away to come and visit us in Karamea.
Thanks for coming.
It's a big carbon cost to come and visit here.
I appreciate you coming. We're trying to find a way to make international travel sustainable activity.
I've been thoroughly inspired by permaculture when I studied in Melbourne with Bill Mollison and Geoff Lawton.
Well, that is an impossible question. Don't ask me that.
That is a question that no one can answer.
It's really difficult. What permaculture people need is a succinct explanation of what it is.
Music
It's about abundance, abundance of experience, fun, music, art, dancing. It's about everything.
Everything we do incorporates art.
The buildings are, well, rainbow. It's a large rainbow-coloured building.
You walk in here. The whole place is like a contemporary art museum.
Music
We give people an opportunity to be artistic. We certainly don't demand that they are,
but we often find that people will start painting or start making music or writing a song.
It's a wonderful way to live.
Music
Oh, yeah. Good evening, everyone. You're listening to DJ Crap and The Big Man.
This is the 500th Blue Show and I hope you're enjoying it.
Here's a little track for my wife and child who are listening at home. Good on you girls.
Eurethra Franklin.
We encourage people to be radio DJs. The radio station definitely elicits creativity from the people that are here.
Music
I like to get everyone's imagination involved because I'm just one person.
I've got one brain and I really like to get everybody's brain working on it
and the collective imaginations of a whole lot of creative people is what this place is all about.
I love living at the end of the road. Everywhere I went I would always visit the end of the road
and find out why people live there. This place is a blank canvas just waiting to happen.
I'm so glad to finally find a place where artists can come together and create.
For peace rather than just for financial reward.
This is the design I've drawn for our new garden.
Ultimately we'll be putting legume crops in each bed and then rotating it to clean up the soil.
In permaculture everything's cooperative together.
It's about everything having more than one purpose.
This garden as well as being a functional garden and very productive I'd imagine.
With access to all our beds it's also a work of art.
I wanted to do something artistic with the garden as well and put my art stamp on the place too.
We're trying to use the principles of permaculture to improve the efficiency, environmental sustainability of our business.
We're out of having a look at what we call the living and peace forest.
It's about 80 acres of regenerating forest.
This property I keep to sequester carbon.
Prees are now growing up fast and as they grow they absorb carbon and lock it up in the wood.
If I hadn't bought it there would already be a dairy farm.
All of this would be gone.
Be bulldozed and humped and hollowed and replaced with a monoculture pasture to make milk.
So I'm pretty happy I bought it basically and I really feel honoured to own this property.
You know my accountants keep telling me to sell it because it's a non-performing asset.
It doesn't make any money but it absorbs carbon dioxide and releases oxygen and that's money to me.
Rather than importing all the people here as travellers and then importing all the food to feed them
we can make a great efficiency gain by growing the food here.
So there's no transport cost, better quality food, fresher, more nutritious, locally grown.
We grow our own firewood, we use solar energy to heat the water.
A lot of people who come and stay with us are from big cities somewhere in the world
and they just haven't had an opportunity to have a garden really.
So we're quite happy to show people around the farm, show people how the food's grown.
Then go back and have dinner with it.
It's not only a rewarding experience, it improves your quality of life.
We're going to be providing permaculture design courses and also internship on the farm
so that they can then take their skills home and start their own permaculture project wherever they're from.
Serious scissors.
Used mostly by high country farmers.
Leave more fleece on and keep the sheep a bit warmer.
At our accommodation facilities, both Caramere Farm Batches and Rongo,
we offer the fourth night free.
We're reducing laundry, the water use, the electricity use, the cleaning products, etc.
We get past the hello, where are you from, what do you do, goodbye sort of scenario,
and into a conversation of more substance which is more rewarding certainly for me
but hopefully also for the traveller.
Now I have this new inspiration and motivation in my life.
Diva's going to really enjoy growing up here.
I think meeting the people and eating the food and enjoying the art and all the stuff that we do.
I used to travel quite a lot but now I stay here and the world comes to me.
It's pretty nice.
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