Sharkey's Book Review of... Home Free Written by Fiona Cunningham Photographs by Chris Hoult Published in 1994 by Random House New Zealand ISBN: 1-86941-231-1

Home Free is the Kiwi version of North America's always popular Rolling Homes. Like Rolling Homes, this book of 126 pages is liberally populated by glossy photographs of house trucks, buses and caravans. Many of the road folk of New Zealand travel the crafts circuits, holding forth at fairs, and gathering the wagons in groups around the countryside. Quite a few of the images in the book appear to have been taken at these events.

Also like Rolling Homes, Home Free is a wonderful book for allowing one's fantasies to run unfettered, imagining nearly anything possible when collecting ideas for the construction of your own mobile habitation. It's also a very good look at the lifestyle of some hardy and resourceful owner-builders. I was surprised to find more than a few vehicles and their owners with whom I am familiar, primarily through e-mail correspondence.

I need to apologize in advance for the general lack of clarity in the images displayed on this page. Sometimes printed material can be difficult to scan, and this book turned out to be one of the more difficult that I have ever attempted.

Note: The following text and photos are Copyrighted Material. Please respect the author's rights.
The comments on the images are mine

Housetruckers are hippies - lazy people who have opted out of real life, people who haven't been able to make it in the real world. They're poor people - crazy.

Wrong. In fact, nothing could be further from the truth. Housetruckers are different, yes. Different because they have chosen a lifestyle outside of the 'norm', and different because the lifestyle they have is unique.

It's a lifestyle full of romance and magic. Housetruckers have the country at their feet. They have a freedom unsurpassed. If the mood strikes a housetrucker, he or she can simply move to another place.

There are few places left in this modern world where housetrucking can be a reality. Thankfully, New Zealand is one of them. In other countries laws have seriously restricted life on the road, and the Kiwi housetruckers appreciate their haven.

Housetruckers...have dispensed with a material world and adopted a completely different value system. Lounge suites and the latest electrical appliance are not coveted. Instead, housetruckers crave quality relationships with their friends, families and fellow travellers. The seek and achieve creativity and a sense of real belonging. They appreciate and are at peace with nature.

Now all that sounds pretty cosmic. And in a way it is. But how many people have wondered about this gypsy lifestyle. It has intrigue and a mystical quality - a way of life many have dreamed about but over time have forgotten of gotten too caught up in mainstream activities to pursue. Others may have never considered it an option; rather a cop out. But even many of those people cannot help but be curious.

From the Introduction

Chris Hoult worked as a photographer for 5 years prior to the publication of this book. He now realises a long-held dream to photograph 'the New Zealand housetrucking experience' and to share his love of this curious lifestyle. Chris was awarded the Agfa Community Newspapers Association award for best photographer of the year 1993 and was a finalist in the Qantas Media Awards, Junior Photographer in 1992

Fiona Cunningham has been a journalist for sixteen years and works with Chris on an Auckland newspaper. Her text brings his photographs to life with her own delight in the housetrucking people and their nomadic lifestyle.

As with nearly all of the other books reviewed here, Home Free is currently out of print (although there are rumors about an updated version). Special thanks to Candle Dust Carol for supplying my copy for this review.