Kevin McCloud's Escape to the Wild

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Adam B

Original Poster:

27,142 posts

253 months

Monday 8th June 2015
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Just finished episode 1 and it was very interesting, family re-located to a Fijian island and started life from scratch

Deeply impressive what they have built and achieved.

Also nicely balanced with the downsides of the reality, and the eldest boy due to leave for NZ

And that is how to eat sashimi

DrDoofenshmirtz

15,185 posts

199 months

Monday 8th June 2015
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It was an amazing place to live...but I'm not sure I could live on an island like that with nobody else other than your family. You'd get lonely & bored pretty quickly I recon. If there were other families nearby then it might be better.

eggchaser1987

1,608 posts

148 months

Monday 8th June 2015
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Watched this this evening. Very impressed with what they had constructed to live in and how they were living.

I would like to give it a try but I'm not sur e I could stick it for a long time. I do think though if there were other people on near by islands it would make a huge difference, and that's coming from some one who isn't the most social person in the world.

carreauchompeur

17,830 posts

203 months

Monday 8th June 2015
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Sounds amazing, will try to catch this on 4OD and simultaneously indulge my slight Kevin Mcloud man crush.

JDH1

1,015 posts

238 months

Monday 8th June 2015
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As with a lot of programmes like this, it raised more questions than it answered. Can't imagine boarding school in New Zealand (complete with regular flights back and forth) can be paid for with a bunch of bananas and some pineapples.

droopsnoot

11,810 posts

241 months

Tuesday 9th June 2015
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It was quite an impressive house, built for under £70k, I'm just assuming they're living off savings and he mentioned some small income from doing trips for tourists to see whales. But if they're only 60% self-sufficient then of course there must be something there to cover the other 40% that they have to buy in.

p1doc

3,111 posts

183 months

Tuesday 9th June 2015
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you got the impression they were pretyy well off preisland as i imafine NZ boarding school will not be cheap
imagine in 10yrs time when all kids have left and just couple left by themselves.....
martin

Mr GrimNasty

8,172 posts

169 months

Tuesday 9th June 2015
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It's just an extended holiday really, when something goes wrong, or they get old or ill, it's back to reality.

boyse7en

6,671 posts

164 months

Tuesday 9th June 2015
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droopsnoot said:
It was quite an impressive house, built for under £70k, I'm just assuming they're living off savings and he mentioned some small income from doing trips for tourists to see whales. But if they're only 60% self-sufficient then of course there must be something there to cover the other 40% that they have to buy in.
Considering that supposedly all the raw materials for the house came from the forests and beaches around the island, and he built it himself, I thought £70k sounds quite a lot for building the house.
Was a very impressive house though.

p1doc

3,111 posts

183 months

Tuesday 9th June 2015
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it was way too off grid for my liking,especially 3 day travel to uk if family emergency!
martin

droopsnoot

11,810 posts

241 months

Tuesday 9th June 2015
quotequote all
boyse7en said:
Considering that supposedly all the raw materials for the house came from the forests and beaches around the island, and he built it himself, I thought £70k sounds quite a lot for building the house.
Was a very impressive house though.
There was a lot of very square and flat timber around, so I'm not sure there wasn't a bit of glossing-over going on there. At the start it was "all built myself" and a bit later "with the help of some locals". But still, even if some of it was bought in, it's not like they're nipping down to B&Q to get it, so that probably adds a bit on. We saw a quick home video of him chainsawing some tree trunks up, and fair play to him if he's managed to turn them into the bits I'm thinking of. £7k for the lease on an acre of land was mentioned, and I don't know whether that features in the total, and how many acres they had. But it's never going to go into that kind of detail in a 45min programme.

We didn't really see a lot of the house - the outside aspect was great, the view from the balcony too, the rest of it seemed quite small. Presumably Kevin was having a wash in the sea because there isn't enough water for proper showers, and I think that might get to me quite quickly - it's probably the main thing that puts me off camping.

Funkycoldribena

7,379 posts

153 months

Tuesday 9th June 2015
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Didnt think it was very hospitable to stick him outside on his first night!Then again I'd be sick of hearing him say the words "off grid" every 5 minutes...

Adam B

Original Poster:

27,142 posts

253 months

Tuesday 9th June 2015
quotequote all
droopsnoot said:
It was quite an impressive house, built for under £70k, I'm just assuming they're living off savings and he mentioned some small income from doing trips for tourists to see whales. But if they're only 60% self-sufficient then of course there must be something there to cover the other 40% that they have to buy in.
thin kshe was working in the city for a mile, between them they sold up so maybe they had say £500k of equity

I reckon they could live on £10k pa there plus the lease costs so a capital sum like that could put the kids through school and last them till the end?

But could see all 3 kids leaving eventually and then them returning to normality (although how they afford the reverse move is a different matter)

Oakey

27,523 posts

215 months

Tuesday 9th June 2015
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I'm not certain but I'm sure I saw them growing weed, need to go back to on demand and check biggrin

Lucas Ayde

3,541 posts

167 months

Tuesday 9th June 2015
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I suspect that they weren't quite as isolated as the show made out (i.e. There were probably 'neighbours' within reasonable travel distance and some sort of loose community in the area) but pretty impressive what they had achieved, none the less.

Almost certainly they'll have to return to Europe once they start getting older as there's no way that they can get affordable medical care where they are, should their health start to go (or rather, when it goes). But what a great achievement to at least temporarily get out of the rat race.

jogon

2,971 posts

157 months

Tuesday 9th June 2015
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ttter saying the dad is from a very wealthy family and they also run tourist holidays..

http://tongabeachhouse.com/

Patch1875

4,893 posts

131 months

Tuesday 9th June 2015
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1st thing I thought was MILFbiggrin

MiniMan64

16,863 posts

189 months

Tuesday 9th June 2015
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Definitely not as isolated as you might think. There were plenty of other more hardened structures on that island that we did not see plus they seem to have a pretty firm online presence with a lot of reviews so they must have a connection for that and get a fair amount of income off it.

Oakey

27,523 posts

215 months

Tuesday 9th June 2015
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jogon said:
ttter saying the dad is from a very wealthy family and they also run tourist holidays..

http://tongabeachhouse.com/
"on site massage"

I knew it, these are sex people!

bazza white

3,551 posts

127 months

Tuesday 9th June 2015
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If you pur "Fofoa Island, Neiafu", Tonga into google maps you can see a few buildings and a small settlement a mile away on the adjoining island, biger town about 10 miles away by boat.