Earthsong Eco-village

On Wednesday night I went to Earthsong Eco-village with San Ting and it was an amazing example of sustainable living! It's based on a model that began in Denmark. The front garden areas are public space and there are no individual car spaces outside the houses. There's a big common house that everyone has access to and includes a guest house that everyone in the village can have for guests for one week free! In the common house is a laundry room, games room, teens room, kids room, tea bar, activity room, dancing room, TV room, rotunda, compost toilet, solar heated outdoor clothes dryer, food garden and forest and so much more, there was everything you'd need. Joel and Judy moved from the US 3 years ago because of Bush fixing votes. They're radicals and had lots to tell us about the consensus method of decision making in the village. Everyone signs a legal contract before they move in. And it's not cheap; the only flat left for sale is $425,000 dollars, (213,000 pounds) for 2 bedrooms, and they're not big. Check out the photos.

This is the tea bar.

This is the original glass in the door of the building that used to be on the site; it was called Tui House. Tui's are a kind of bird common here. You can see the rotunda in the background. That's my favourite part of the common house.

This is the kitchen; 2 nights every week there's communal meals and there are teams of people who decide what to cook.

This is the compost toilet; i've never seen one before and thought it would be smelly...it was a bit...there used to be a chart behind the door for people to keep a record of how many visits they've paid but it got taken down.

This was the 3 snails on the path walking back to the car after our visit, they look so funny like they're racing to the food garden :)

This is my lettuce I took a picture of today at the Community Waitakere office (Friday 2nd Oct) and it is definitely growing! Yippeeee :)