This Family Fled From Civilization 🌳☀️

Watch on YouTube · 2025-08-27 · 22 min

0:00 Hey, what's up everyone? A subscriber of mine sent me a video to review. It's about a long family. It's a family from New Zealand that essentially tried to get away from civilization. I needed to be somewhere where I didn't have people telling me how I should live my life. Yes, exactly. Yeah, that should be the driving force because that's slavery.

[video] 0:29 Robert Long wanted to get away and he went as far as he could.

[video] 0:35 I wanted to be somewhere where it was all wilderness. Where there was nothing to connect him to the wilderness, nature. Modern world.

0:46 Understandable. Yeah, absolutely. I think that a lot of people want that deep down.

[video] 0:55 Where there was no roads between the sea and the mountains. a river and a hut miles away from anything, anyone.

1:08 It's not so much that you want to get away from people. Naturally, not at all. You want to create a big family and live together with lots of people as long as they are sane. But seeing as most people are not sane today in this so-called modern world, it's of course problematic to be around them. What?

[video] 1:40 It's like you crave human company. So how long can it be between visitors? It can be months. And Robert Long chose this life not only for himself, but for his family. For 16 years the Longs have lived here.

1:56 Yeah, and there's nothing wrong with that, but you should have a bigger family. Ten children, parents with two children...

2:07 It's a start.

[video] 2:08 In almost total isolation, surrounded by the sea, the mountains and the sand flies. The nearest road is 50 kilometers away. To get in and out, it's a long trek. Two days walk this way or seven days to the south. I've made it a little bit more cosier. Step inside the hut that Robert Long has called home and you can't help but wonder why. Probably a few more screens to get the sand files out. In another life, he once made headlines as a high achiever. His life mapped out to become a doctor. That was already set in concrete. All I had to do was pass my exams. Did you pass? Yeah.

[video] 2:46 Robert's wife Catherine, a former microbiologist, now relies on an oil drum to cook for her family.

[video] 2:53 Do you know what temperature that's at? No, this doesn't go all the way. There's no fridge. The nearest Super 8, a two-day tramp to hast.

3:02 Yeah, but they still have imported seed slime. However they get it. That's too bad. I wish that they would just eat what nature provides. Maybe there's not many animals around, but they are by the water. You have the water and the forest. What else can you really want?

[video] 3:24 How do you get your food? We have an airplane come once a month. The rest of it comes from the garden and from the river. What about luxury items for the kids? We like a bottle of milk. A bottle of milk is a luxury? We have powder milk, but a bottle of milk is still not. Here's the outside world here on the radio. I listen to the national radio.

[video] 3:45 And an emergency radio, except it doesn't work. No, about a month ago it stopped working. Officially it's a Department of Conservation hut, but a handshake deal three decades ago has allowed him to stay there as caretaker for free. This is our place to live. But I don't claim that it's my hut. It's still a public hut, as far as I'm concerned. When television cameras last dropped in 13 years ago, Robert and Catherine had just married and were starting a family. Kristen, then three, and baby Robin. And did you have any reservations at all about bringing a little baby back in here? No. We're looking forward to getting it home. Two blue-eyed bush babes. They'd be raised here without television, computers, schools and cars. Just each other for playmates.

4:38 Very nice. Except again, only two children. That's not natural. That's not normal. That's the only downside. Otherwise, awesome.

[video] 4:49 We've grown up on boulders, so we're very good at walking on boulders. Kristen is now a young man. I guess that we can assume that they had no braces, how could they possibly, I can't imagine.

5:20 His teeth look all right. Not perfect, obviously. But I'm just thinking about the development. Yeah, but they also eat grain sludge. Still, they probably eat a lot better food overall than most people.

[video] 5:36 Yeah. Anywhere and you'd be able to survive. The sex to keep the flies off. At an age when most kids are hanging out with mates. They've been hanging overnight, so they've cooled down. Kristen is hanging out with possums. Sometimes you get a real smart possum that dodges all the traps. He'll eat possum if he has to. It's good if you've got nothing else. And he's very quick skinning them. Yeah, exactly, and that's not normal. They should have at least had five children.

6:25 Yeah, why did they not? Maybe there was a reason for it. I can't really imagine what. Then it would be a lot more fun for them. That's always exciting.

[video] 6:35 If you haven't seen anyone for ages, you're always hanging out to see someone. Does it matter who it is? No, no. Anyone's fine.

[video] 6:53 The baby girl who was brought to the bush when she was just a few weeks old is now 13 and has a pet Chook. Chooky.

[video] 7:02 We got her from some friends in our town. She was just a little fluffball. Which is the closest friend. Kind of, yeah.

7:11 For her 13th birthday... She also had no braces, right? I would assume. Hmm. Interesting.

[video] 7:20 I forget iPods and cell phones. Her only present was a green stone dolphin carved by her father. Is that what you wanted? Yeah. Anything else?

7:32 Pretty well developed compared to most people today. Again, not by any means perfect or anything. But yeah, when you compare it, they just live there in sort of isolation right no dentist nothing yeah maybe somebody sometime came along but that's about it probably cool interesting to see there's all sorts of things i want but telling them we're pretty impractical what sort of things um trembling

[video] 8:11 Auckland-born Robert Long, beansprout as he's known in the district, opted for all this when he was just 24. An outstanding student at an elite boys' school in Brisbane, a prefect, an army cadet, a state champion athlete, he got three years into a medical degree when in an instant he threw it all in. What were your parents' expectations of you?

[video] 8:36 They expected me to be successful as a doctor, so they were deeply disappointed.

8:44 Yeah, but in reality he was actually successful, except that he only had two children. If they had close to ten children there,

8:57 yeah what else can you wish for yeah some things which are naturally hard to do although they live in isolation there who cares really and they can hunt whatever animals they want to i guess that's what it seems like how would he be successful by living in civilization treating people as in their symptoms covering them up and now no way

[video] 9:27 three different coastline, two and a half thousand kilometres across the sea, we found 81-year-old Robert Long Senior in Mooloolaba Queensland, Robert's dad. What was your proudest moment? Well, I think the proudest moment, if there is such a thing, was in his final year at school when he was presented with the trophies that he had won during the year. And the whole school stood up.

9:53 The guy has a pretty well-developed face. He's older now, obviously, but just purely looking at the development of the bones.

10:06 Yeah, good genetics, which she gave to the children, what they inherited.

[video] 10:14 And he was the only one that had that acclamation out of all of those that were presented. New Zealander Bob Long brought his family to Australia in the 60s and, having prospered from property and oil, retired at just 47, now living the life his son might have had if he'd finished medical school. He had disappointed me and I was angry with him. I felt what I've done for my part was the duty of a father and it was the duty of a son to take advantage of the opportunities. And when he didn't do so, I felt that the contract had been broken by him. And I was disappointed, yes.

10:50 Yeah, that's the problem. Wanting your children to do something that's unnatural. Of course it can go wrong. Some will just not want to be part of the system. He just doesn't get it. He doesn't understand his perspective and he never will most likely.

[video] 11:12 Too hard to be a doctor.

11:15 think this is one of the problems that between sport and education etc i think he took on too much and i think that was the reason that he finally yeah exactly too much pressure from everybody around you especially the parents and you don't want that you just want to do what you naturally want to do you want to chill hunt get food and reproduce that's it essentially yeah there's a bit more to it but that's the core of it and they wanted him to study work and who knows what sports he said it's all unnatural nobody wants to really do it and then the pressure was too much understandable

[video] 12:05 For years they were estranged, father and son. One thriving in the modern world, one rejecting it. Robert Junior says something just clicked for him 28 years ago. The idea that civilization was harming humans, destroying the planet.

12:23 Exactly, of course. Of course, that's how it is.

[video] 12:27 But what difference are you making here? In our own little way, we're just... Trying to make a little bit of a difference. And I think that's what matters.

12:35 What I notice is that there's just no geoengineering at all. Okay, this video is from longer ago. They didn't do it that much some decades ago. Still, super blue sky, natural clouds. Looks like fucking paradise almost.

[video] 12:53 It's not what I talk about. It's not what I tell you what to do. It's what I do. And that's what matters. It's what you do as a person. Wait, what?

13:27 Did you not just listen to what she said? What your son actually wants to do? He said that civilization is destroying the earth. He doesn't want to save civilization. He's against it. Man, this guy, yeah, he doesn't get it. Doesn't get his perspective whatsoever. He said that civilization is destroying the earth. He's not trying to save it, man. You just said the opposite of what your son believes. Maybe he just doesn't want to hear it or understand it, or he really just doesn't listen. Well, whatever the case, he just doesn't get it.

[video] 14:07 Do you relate to that at all?

14:09 No, I don't think so.

[video] 14:11 No, I can't see.

14:14 any move he's making to sort of benefit my mankind he's benefiting himself very much but i think mankind's doing pretty well but you do benefit mankind by being natural because it would inspire other people to do it of course the system has a hold of us unfortunately so that's not going to actually solve the problem But yes, how do you solve it? By promoting living naturally or by living naturally yourself?

14:52 The only thing is that he only has two children. And of course, nobody would even know about him if it wasn't for this video.

[video] 15:02 But Robert Junior's choices have meant sacrifices for his children. Growing up without conventional schooling, no internet, research the old-fashioned way. Children who, through necessity, have had to give up some of their dreams. Your mother told us you once wanted to be a black cat. Yeah, I used to be into sport, but it's not really possible out here, I'm afraid so.

[video] 15:26 Kristen has never played in a team. He learned the rules of rugby and cricket by listening to national radio. So do you regret that you haven't been able to develop those skills? No, I don't really regret it. There's other things to do, and I'm quite happy doing that. What head? He wanted to be a blackcap, didn't he? He did. I knew he was going for it then, but now he wants something else. What's that? What does he want now? He likes being here at the moment. He likes trout fishing and possum trapping. That skin there would probably be worth $14. What he really wants is to start a business, turning possum skins into possum pillows. And Robin also has plans. I'd like to go to university. I'd like to be a research scientist. Like your mum? Yeah, I suppose. What would you like to do research into? I like birds and wildlife and stuff, especially birds.

[video] 16:31 I think people concentrate on what we miss out on here, but they don't realize how much we have that they don't. I make a schedule. We're going to have to get our kids to the school bus on time. We don't have to go to work to pay for them to have the house and the car and the bus fares and the clothes that they need.

16:47 We work hard, but the... Wow. Nice food. Wow.

[video] 16:53 The work that we do translates straight into... Results. It's food in your mouth. It's not... paying somebody else to do it for you it's the only life they've lovely could eat it raw raw lobster it is super nice but as bush babes become bush teens and adults their eyes must be opening to the rest of the world What kind of time, won't there, when you can actually just decide, I've had enough and I'm going to go out and do my own thing? Yeah. Have you reached that point yet? Not quite yet, but if I want to, I can go away and do something by myself. I've been out to town once from here. I went to a school camp in the Lewis Pass. Would you like to live in a town?

[video] 17:41 Maybe. I've tried living in the bush. It would be quite cool to try something else as well. They are outdoing me in all sorts of areas. Knowledge, even wisdom. They seem to know more about life than I do.

18:03 What he said at the end about the children as if they understand more about life than he does is interesting and likely true because if you grow up

18:16 naturally or the way they live which is pretty close to the way you would grow up naturally except that it's too little people that's not normal that never happens that you grow up with two parents and a sibling that they actually took with them from civilization whether they realize it or not But the reason I find it interesting is because when I watch my daughter and what she does, and she's very young still, I can already learn a lot from her, believe it or not. Because I let her live completely naturally. I let her do whatever she wants to. Of course, as a parent, you teach her if something is harmful in some way. But besides that, she can just live the way she wants to.

19:11 And I see her react to certain things and I actually learn from it, even though I'm so much into nature and natural human behavior and everything, I still learn something from her, even though she's super young. I'm just thinking about it because I guess that because he grew up in civilization, but the daughter didn't and the son also not really. He probably saw how they act naturally in a lot of ways and he learned from it. I think that that's what he meant, because this is what I'm experiencing already so early on. And seeing as they were, I think, 13 and 16, the reporter said, He learned a lot from them. Overall, I liked the video. It had a good atmosphere.

20:07 It's very easy to watch. It's interesting. As I said, having two children is abnormal, naturally. That would never happen. That's why it's not ideal there. Because typically, naturally, or if you look at the way human life began, but of course, everybody has their own beliefs as to how it began.

20:37 It would usually happen this way. You would have people and then they would reproduce and then you have a sort of town, not a town with stupid modern buildings. Not what we have today, but you would create more and more shelters and then you would expand. That's normal. This is close to the way you would live naturally, but they live isolated and I don't know what happened to them later on. I only saw some photos of them. They seem to be doing fine. Maybe somebody can inform me about that. But it just doesn't seem like they actually did what they were naturally really supposed to. Still, You take all of this from civilization with you. It's hard to deprogram yourself completely.

21:37 And they could also not probably hunt exactly the way they wanted to, I would assume, seeing as it's a kind of protected place, as far as I understood. But the son was able to hunt. Maybe he wasn't allowed to hunt the bigger animals. I don't know. That would be even more interesting. Still, he didn't seem to be interested in the sports, even if he only hunted smaller animals. That was already enough because that's what he, of course, naturally really wanted. He wanted to hunt with his father, brothers, all in a big group, big animals with spears and whatnot. Instead, he was kind of hunting alone, I think, or maybe sometimes with the father. I guess the father probably showed him how to do it.

22:27 They never experience life the way it naturally should be, but they get closer than 99% of people and that's of course beautiful. Thanks for watching.