A HOME IS WHERE THE HEART IS

He purchased an old bus, modified it to make his home, and started living in it for the last 25 years…Meet the man he is Keith Levy of New Zealand

Keith Levy and his old bus as his sweet home. 

By LB THAPA

Keith Levy is the modern-day Robinson Crusoe of New Zealand. Daniel Defoe’s Robinson Crusoe lived on an island after the shipwreck, but Keith Levy, born and raised in Wellington, lives on his bus and he is always mobile.

He had purchased an old bus from Lloyd Kahn, who is the editor-in-chief of Shelter Publications in New Zealand. Keith Levy is an amazing man who has hardly lived in apartments; most of his life has been spent off the grid.

When asked how he modified the whole piece of a bus into a luxury house, he began explaining as if he was telling one of his adventure stories.

‘I used to work in the day time to make money and with that money, I would purchase necessary materials to give the bus the shape of a house. I took no help and worked all alone. I was quite skilled in making, designing, and shaping things to look aesthetically beautiful. When it was all over, my bus had been converted into a house. I gave a name for my bus cum house ‘Flying Tortoise’.

Keith Levy’s job was done but living inside the bus is easier said than done…it is full of challenges. However, Keith Levy had enough experience to live in a situation like that. Before jumping onto the Flying Tortoise, he had lived in an old yacht for six years.  

‘Many times you park your bus at a place and a few minutes later cops will arrive and ask you to move away from the place as parking was not allowed there. You need to drive more extra miles just to find a proper parking place so that nobody disturbs your good night's sleep.

‘But it is also satisfactory when people look at you in awe; appreciate your bus cum house. I noticed that many of them had never seen a house inside the bus. They take several photos of my bus and ask permission to go inside the bus. But I, most of the time, deny people to go inside the bus. Taking autographs and selfies with me is quite common. It is a wonderful experience indeed’ says Keith Levy with a flicker of a smile across his face.

Over the last 25 years, Keith Levy has been living off the grid. For some years, he spent on a yacht called Shoestring. He had spent six years on the yacht. He would spend more time on that yacht, had the devastating hurricane not destroyed the yacht. After the loss of the yacht, he shifted his home from on water to on-road.

Literately speaking, Keith Levy lived a nomadic but highly active and most creative life. He had written a story for a film and wrote a book ‘How to live well on a small income’. For some time he worked as a painter. He did also organize painting exhibitions in New Zealand, Australia, and the US. 

With Flying Tortoise, he began roaming extensively. Wherever he would go, people would surround him and ask many questions. Most of them would show an intense desire to follow his lifestyle.

All photos: Courtesy

It was a pleasant surprise for Keith Levy when Alison Mau from TVNZ’s TV came to Tokerau Beach for the interview. The interviewer wanted to know how living smaller and self sufficiently is possible on a small income.

The interview helped Keith Levy to be known all over New Zealand. After watching the interview, many young men and women at home and abroad wanted to follow Keith Levy’s lifestyle.      

In the meantime, Keith Levy did shift his attention from painting to writing. This time it was blogging. Keith Levy named his blog ‘Flying Tortoise’. Since 2009, he began blogging regularly, or let’s say every day he would post something.

Apparently, his blog became quite popular in New Zealand. There were many followers from New Zealand and other parts of the world. After continuously blogging for seven years, Keith gave a nasty surprise to his readers.

He wrote ‘Dear readers, this is my last post. Now the time has come to say goodbye. How bizarre, and how shocking! Many readers, who were following his blog, including this blogger, were at their wit's end. I have posted his last blog as it is so that the readers can understand his mental state of mind.

MONDAY SEPTEMBER 21, 2015

The Last Post    

It's time. I've decided. I've given it serious consideration. It's been wonderful and now it's time to say goodbye. It's time to go. And time too, to take another step back away from society. Witnessing what is happening in the world on a daily basis is not a happy experience anymore.

So much of it has become far too upsetting and depressing and it's hard not being affected by it. Greed, speed, need and creed have got to me. The internet is a wonderful thing. It rules the world but it's not going to rule mine.

I will miss the research, the creative writing process, but there are other things to do. There'll be more time for fishing. I have enjoyed immensely, the nearly seven years of writing and publishing well over two thousand posts without missing a day. And now it's time to take my simple life in The Flying Tortoise and simplify it further.

I have delighted in my role as a social commentator and I shall keep doing that but with the spoken word, performing using rhyme and guitar. I want to thank you all very much for following, for commenting and being part of this blog and my life for the last long time and for visiting here many thousands of times each week. And millions of times over the years.

I am just completing my first seventy years and am looking forward to doing some things differently in the next seventy. I will feel lost for a while I'm sure. This blog has been a big part of my life over these last few years.

And so too has your wonderful feedback and the many complementary and encouraging emails. Life will feel strange without this blog. But I will find myself and perhaps catch up with you somewhere somehow again too. I will miss you very much. And life moves on.

My love and best wishes to you all...

Here ends the post. It is certainly a piece of heartrending news from a man who always gave excitement and hope to many followers of Flying Tortoise. We had never thought he would make an exit in such a way.  

I followed him for some time then I stopped, as I could not get any information about him. I was nervous thinking that possibly Keith Levy might have fallen into depression and that caused him unable to write. Otherwise, he has such a personality that he would never cease writing for his blog at all.

Being so lucky that one day I got a small piece of information about Keith Levy and that gave solace to me. I was satisfied by knowing that he was alive and kicking and living a wonderful life of The Roaming Rhymester. In his new avatar, he has become the storyteller and social commentator.

Now Keith Levy tells stories from his life experiences and plays the guitar in the Northland area, New Zealand. He still lives in his Flying Tortoise as always as ever. His stories carry the message of life and experiences, which he presents at community events, private dinner parties, house concerts, and seminars.

It is good to know that our Keith Levy the modern-day Robinson Crusoe is thriving. He sings the songs of his life experiences. Let’s hope one day Keith Levy will return to his blog and he will start sharing his life experiences with his followers.    

 

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