I was challenged by one of the tutors for our October Permaculture Design Certificate course – Guenther Andraschko - to write a piece about why River Valley Lodge is an excellent venue for such a course. This challenge followed Guenther visiting us in late autumn. First some background River Valley Lodge is situated in the [...]
Sometimes I think you have to be careful with thinking about what you wish for. For quite some time, a few years in fact, I would say the family as a whole have thought and talked about taking River Valley in a different direction. The questions so often revolved around what this new direction looked [...]
When we think about having a lighter touch on the earth, what no doubt comes to mind at first thought is the likes of recycling, planting a few trees and maybe less fossil-fueled travel, especially in big aircraft heading overseas. However, if we are honest, we don’t know what to do beyond this to make [...]
For many years, a few restaurants, cafes, and accommodation places have offered some form of farm to table or paddock to plate style food. Of late, there has seemed to be a bit of an explosion in this field. Pick up any travel-related magazine, and some luxury lodge is touting that some at least of [...]
Milford Sound, New Zealand When I, and I imagine most people, think of mining, we think of enormous holes in the ground with colossal machinery lumbering like ants upon the devastation. Whether it be mountain top removal for coal, mineral extraction for precious metals or the grotesqueness of tar sand operations, we all have a [...]