A future ecovillage

Sarah and Lester have been keeping an eye on Trademe for potential land, and there’s a good selection out there. To help refine the search, let’s have a look at some of the options over a couple of blog posts.

It seems you have can have two of these:

• Cheap
• Good
• Close to town

But not all three.

Saying that, heres three options that get the basics right:

The far north

See Trademe page

In the Far North the weather is more tropical than the in the Wellington region, meaning you can grow more varieties of fruits and vegetables. The land is relatively inexpensive like this 6 hectares in an organic farming area for 150K.

The far north is also somewhat of an epicentre for the self sufficient organics movement in New Zealand, and many organic farms (including the amazing Koanga Institute) are located here.

The downside is that it’s fairly remote, the nearest cities being Whangarei, and Auckland many hours drive away. For the lowdown on what it’s like being self sufficent-ish in the far north, see the Farmlet blog.

Manawatu (Levin  and Palmerston North through to Dannevirke)

See Trademe page

This area is characterised by rolling plains and farming towns which makes for good agriculture.  It is typically alluvial with a mix of mudstone and grey rock.  The land is again relatively affordable, but gets more expensive nearer Palmerston North. There is a Massey University campus in Palmerston North for those with an academic bent.  It also has a rail connection to Wellington and Auckland. The farming communities here, to my knowledge, are generally at the agribusiness end of the spectrum, making it possibly more of a challenge to set up our community.

The whanganui river valley

See Trademe page

I grew up around Whanganui and it’s got some great advantages for an ecovillage. It’s incredibly fertile due to the alluvial soils that are washed down in the river. The land here is also relatively affordable. This particular section is quite close to town(is there a link here?). The flip side is that the nearest town is Whanganui, which is a small city with small city limitations. Though it does have facilities and an arts and music scene, it is much more limited than the capital, Wellington, which is around 2 1/2 hours away by car. There is currently no passenger rail service to Wanganui, the nearest railway station being in Palmerston North, but it is well serviced by daily busses to the major cities.

What do you think?

So that’s three options, but there are of course lots more. If you’re looking, a few things to look out for are:

• Around 50k for 5 acres each
• A supportive environment for organic farming
• A stream to provide water and electricity would help
• Enough flat land to grow vegetables and put a home on

Please share your thoughts on where you think would be the best district for the village!

Tags: a future ecovillage, afutureecovillage, alternative living, ecovillage, Land