Photo: supplied/Francine Boer Photography
Gillian Swinton was born and bred in Edinburgh - and her maternal ancestors are from a tiny island in the Outer Hebrides in Northern Scotland.
She here in 2010 with only a backpack, but Gillian Swinton has now made home in Central Otago on a 2.7 hectare plot of land with her partner Hamish - where they are living as much as they can off the land.
With a few sheep, bees , lots of chooks and lots of hard work - they call themselves modern homesteaders.
And with nearly 80,000 members on a Homesteading New Zealand Facebook page - Gillian says there's growing interest in getting back to a simpler way of life.
She's now written a book called' The Good Life' - published by Allen & Unwin.
