In dit boek beschrijft Miriam vooral haar problemen met de jacht en het weer. Ze gaat niet echt in op de emotionele kanten van de isolatie en hoe dit voor je relatie is. Wel noemt ze eenmalig de angst om niks te doen en om alleen te zijn. Op een gegeven moment komt ze een gepensioneerde meneer tegen die vertelt hoe hij altijd is geleefd door zijn werk en gezin. Dat is precies waarom Peter de wildernis in wou en het zet je toch aan het denken. Het is verder vooral een avonturenverhaal met weinig diepgang en op een gegeven moment veel van hetzelfde maar dan op een andere plaats. Aan de andere kant is het juist fijn dat ze de praktijk laat zien en niet theoretisch doordraaft over hun motieven. Op den duur wordt het verhaal wel wat langdradig en gaat het in de herhaling. Meer spirituele ervaringen op meer prachtige plekken in Nieuw Zeeland. Bovendien is het ook niet bijzonder goed geschreven. Then the woman fled into the wilderness where she had a place prepared by God, so that there she would be nourished for 1,260 days. De bieb heeft dit boek gecategoriseerd als 'Nieuw Zeeland'. Begrijpelijk, maar ook niet helemaal. Ik vind het ook een spiritueel boek. Lancewood beschrijft op de eerste plaats een reis naar zichzelf. Hoe meer ze inpassen in de natuur, hoe meer moeite ze hebben met aanpassen aan de huidige samenleving. We had been living in the mountains for nearly two months now, but it felt like an eternity. During those first two weeks I had been so bored, but the wilderness had forced me to yield and gradually, day by day and week by week, time had slowed down.

The woman fled into the wilderness to a place prepared for her by God, where she might be taken care of for 1,260 days. It's oddly liberating to consider how we could call the whole world (or at lest a chunk of an island) a home. Soothing and agoraphobic. Wouldn't it be strange to be at home wherever you go?If I looked into the heart of nature’s rhythms, I could see that sacrifice was part of its cycle. All around me, I was aware of a sweeping power that had the ability to destroy living creatures so casually, but with the same movement could also create profoundly. I saw that same energy in the vast landscape around us. (c) I'm not sure if I'm skeptical or envious or busy rolling my eyes or getting cringey or fangirling or... I was not doing anything special, but suddenly it felt as if a lightning bolt entered my head, as if the right part of my brain suddenly opened, and with it came an extraordinary clarity. I sat down in wonder, and saw that the whole of reality was in fact moving like a kaleidoscope. I saw that everything, including my own mind, was constantly transforming; I was not really fixed in one place. I saw that this changing reality was an eternal movement in a timeless world. (c)

When they do bump into another person in the wild it’s usually a hunter, and always a man. She thinks that perhaps women have lost their connection with nature, “even more than men. And also,” she adds, passionately, “why do women behave so weakly, physically? As in, ‘I can’t lift that,’ ‘I can’t shit outside,’ ‘I can’t have my period in the bush.’” She thinks it’s a shame women are missing out.

When the wild horses saw us, they fled like wary deer. Their long manes and tails flew up in the air as they galloped at full speed inland. It was a remarkable sight. Horses are naturally very elegant, but these wild ones were indescribably magnificent. These free horses almost felt like a gift from Ninety Mile Beach. (c) I thought about how humankind had gradually grown tame; once upon a time, humans had been as wild and proud as this tomcat, and deep in my heart I felt that one day, in a faraway future, humans would be wild again. (c) It was as if heaven had pulled away from the earth and created a space in which everything was still, serene and complete. (c)

Miriam Lancewood is attractive, energetic, tough and eloquent - and just 34 when her memoir was published in 2017 . She had a story to tell and people who heard her wanted more. Hence, she was commissioned (I presume by Allen & Unwin) to write a memoir of her nomadic exploits in the rugged, wilderness of New Zealand’s South Island with her partner, Peter, old enough to be a father-figure. Don’t write it down. … See it for yourself. Words are meaningless compared to direct experience.’ (с) De cover is precies zoals Miriam op jacht ging. Ze leefden voornamelijk van de dieren, die toch maar gedood worden zonder ze op te eten, omdat Nieuw-Zeeland de dieren van vroeger zonder menselijke inbreng terug willen. We will be so careful, and I will write you long letters. We’ll meet hunters who will post them for me.’The opening line tells all (almost): It is a beautiful winter’s day and I am walking with my bow and arrows on the side of a mountain, in search of a wild goat.