Out of the Wild

Out of the Wild Charlie Paterson Publisher: Charlie Paterson RRP: $39.90 Release Date: 1 May 2018 MORE INFO HERE Seven years in the Fiordland National Park –  one man’s tale of adversity and building a dream with little more than dogged determination.

 

Not the standard romantic wilderness survival tale, but an honest, warts and all account of one young man's unique journey, striving to survive for seven years in a very remote rainforest location inside New Zealand's Fiordland National Park, three days walk away from the nearest road end. A true story of isolation and loneliness, away from all the modern conveniences and comforts most take for granted, Charlie’s tale is one of adversity, building a dream with dogged determination. Battling against considerable and powerful opposition, bureaucracy, severe lack of money, unforgiving nature, himself and ultimately his own ill health; only to find the dream fulfilled will almost destroy him. Out of the Wild is more than just a candid wilderness survival tale but includes some very interesting snippets of New Zealand's early pioneer history associated to the Fiordland National Park, the Hollyford Valley, Martins Bay, the beautiful deserted ghost town of Jamestown Bay and even the fabled "lost ruby mine" in the inaccessible Red Hills of the Southern Alps. For the outdoor and "back to basics" enthusiasts Charlie details his accounts of hunting red deer in the thick Fiordland rainforest around his wilderness home to using the old traditional methods to store his kills, through to trapping introduced predators destroying the special rainforest ecosystems, to living off the smell of an oily rag. Out of the Wild is a unique New Zealand wilderness tale.

 

Charlie Paterson was born to a farming family in Southland. Charlie has worked in a variety of roles from being in the NZ Army to stoking coal fired boilers on a tourist steam ship in Queenstown. He has managed seacage Salmon Farms at Stewart Island and he has run a charitable Outdoor Education Centre in Doubtful Sound, Fiordland, and he has also owned and operated his own motel. Most of Charlie’s working and recreational life has been spent in some very remote wilderness locations that few people get to visit, until getting married to his lovely wife Bronny in 2009. They have since had two young children and now live happily in Invercargill. See more at www.purewilderness.co.nz