From Tokyo to Karamea: The Start of the Road at the End of the World’s Longest Cul de Sac.
Sanae and Paul Murray say life is sweet in this remote town of 700 people.
For Paul Murray, ex-journalist, art photographer, keen horticulturist, cultural enthusiast, real estate agent, former bed and breakfast proprietor, and family man; life in the little South Island town of Karamea couldn’t be sweeter.
Murray, 57, has been living in the isolated settlement of 700 residents cocooned between the Kahurangi National Park and the Tasman sea since 2003. With his wife, Sanae Murray, 41, joining him in 2004, they’ve chosen to raise their family there, to give their children a free-range lifestyle. Their happy and confident kids, Diva and Winston, are now almost 12 and just turned 9.
With one road in and one road out, Paul likens the town, including its peculiarities, mindset and biological diversity, to that of an island.
“We’re at the end of the world’s longest cul-de-sac, and a place we like to think of as the start of the road,” he say. “We’re 100km north of Westport, basically, on a no-exit road.’
PAUL & SANAE MURRAYPaul and Sanae Murray have made their family life in Karamea since 2003, raising their two children there, Winston at left, and Diva, at right, who are now nine and almost 12, respectively.
Paul first visited Karamea in 2000 when he was living in Japan, working as a journalist and art photographer.
“I came to New Zealand on a holiday in about 2000, and looked at a map and I thought ‘Wow, the town right up there.’ I was driving around the south, and I thought we’re gonna look at that. And so I drove up here and just thought, ‘What an incredible place.’ And I just fell in love with it.”
PAUL MURRAYHappy visits to the beach are par for the course in Murray family life in Karamea.
He’s not the only one to drive down the no-exit road and decide to never leave. Paul says there are “lots of stories about people doing that”, including a Canadian friend, who has since died, who came to Karamea for a picnic and ended up staying for 40 years.
When Paul returned to Tokyo, he says he couldn’t stop thinking about Karamea. The following year, he bought 32 hectares of bush that borders the national park, then went back to Tokyo to work to pay for it. Two years later he moved there permanently, with Sanae following not long after.
PAUL & SANAE MURRAYThe stunning natural beauty and biodiversity of Karamea won Paul Murray over in 2000, and his partner, then wife, Sanae, followed him shortly after.
“It’s been an amazing journey,” he says. So what’s so great about Karamea?
“It is a very stunning place,” says Paul. “It’s very much like a geographical island. You’ve got the Kahurangi National Park on three sides and then it’s sealed in by the Tasman Sea.”
“It’s the warmest, driest place on the West Coast, because it’s the furthest north. And interestingly, we’re actually north of Wellington. Because in maps the South Island is a bit skewed, we’re actually just north of Wellington, and we’re east of Timaru. So it’s a bit of a local joke: Where are you from, mate? Oh, just north of Wellington. Oh, the Kāpiti coast? No, no. Karamea.’
SANAE MURRAYBeing an available dad is important to Paul, which is why he no longer runs the motel and B&B facilities that they used to.PAUL & SANAE MURRAY“Just north of Wellington and east of Timaru” is where you’ll find Karamea.
Because it’s remote, Paul says the residents are independent, resilient, and “interested in sustainable living and growing food”.
It’s a world away from the bustling streets of Tokyo, where Paul and Sanae first met. For her, moving to Karamea meant a new language, a new culture, a new lifestyle … and directly disobeying her father’s wishes.
Long since settled now, the family enjoy weekly calls on a Sunday to Sanae’s parents in Tokyo, and go to visit every year. They speak Japanese on the Zoom calls but English around the house.
“Speaking Japanese to my wife is pointless because her English is far better than my Japanese,” Paul says.
PAUL & SANAE MURRAYThe Murrays try to visit Japan every year so the children can see their grandparents. Every visit, Paul is reaffirmed in the choice they have made to raise their children in Karamea. Compared to children of the same age in Tokyo, he feels his are “so much more confident”.
The family have their own little farm that includes 1.6ha of grazing sheep and 2000m² of productive gardens.
Before Covid, the couple used to run motels in Karamea, including a 10-bedroom 1960s ex-maternity hospital which they operated as a bed and breakfast. Paul estimates they served up 2,500 meals a year using their own garden’s produce.
The ease of growing all manner of fruits and vegetables is one of the key things that encouraged Paul, who has a degree in horticulture, to move here.
“It’s warm and sunny, and you can grow almost anything here. I was absolutely astounded by the range of different crops people can grow here. They can grow bananas.”
PAUL & SANAE MURRAYDiva in the Murray’s productive garden, which these days produces around 60% of the family’s food.
His garden includes plants you wouldn’t expect to be viable on the West Coast, such as macadamia nuts, Ecuadorian coconuts, feijoas, passion-fruit, and blueberries.
Paul’s long-term goal is to become a kawakawa “pepper baron.” A collaborative partnership is already underway with a local cheesemaker to create a sensational kawakawa-infused cheese. Watch this space.
His career in abstract nature photography began with a Tokyo exhibition of holiday photos from New Zealand. Far from the “snaps next to a giant gumboot” that his friends expected, the images were artistic captures, a lens into a landscape that Paul loves.
PAUL & SANAE MURRAYThe Murrays also have sheep grazing on their little farm.
Pushed on by his friends to exhibit, he says the experience was unexpectedly “a phenomenal success”.
“It was unbelievable, the jammiest thing I’ve ever done in my life,” he says.
“So many people came, we had to close the exhibition down. And we had to employ a security guard to let a certain number of people in at a time. There was a line outside the restaurant for a block and a half.”
“And then because of the line, it attracted media attention, and suddenly, all these journalists were turning up wanting to talk to the artist and I’m thinking, ‘Oh no, is that me?’ Suddenly, I’m an artist.”
“I ended up in Japanese photo magazines, and then in the popular press in Tokyo at the time. And from then on, I was just doing exhibitions all the time, to the point where I kind of burned out a bit. I lost the passion for what I was doing, because I ended up sort of feeling like I was doing it for other people rather than myself.”
PAUL MURRAYA recent abstract nature artwork by Paul who plans to hold another exhibition in Tokyo in 2024.PAUL & SANAE MURRAYPaul’s wife Sanae took the leap of a lifetime to buck tradition and join him to live in Karamea in 2003. Her brave choice was the beginning of their family’s story.
He met Sanae at one of the exhibitions, so it’s safe to say the experience was still resoundingly positive.
Paul has returned to creating art in Karamea, and is also an enthusiastic supporter of the arts community there. Sanae has produced 11 pop-up exhibitions in the town and he estimates that around 10% of Karamea’s residents are artists.
Will the Murrays ever move? Not a chance.
They’ve hosted multiple Japanese television crews and an Italian documentary team, all curious to learn why they choose to live in a place some consider to be the ends of the earth.
PAUL & SANAE MURRAYThe place where their children have grown, Karamea is full of happy memories. Here, their son Winston, now nine, plays on the beach in Karamea at dusk.PAUL & SANAE MURRAYSanae Murray is also a keen supporter of the arts and to date, has organised 11 pop-up exhibitions of local artists’ works.
Their “ramshackle, work in progress, building site of a house” is a 100-year-old, three-bedroom villa, at the western end of Karamea.
The town has all the amenities that Paul considers to be important, from “one of the best schools in New Zealand” to a Vidal Sassoon hairdresser, a supermarket, heated swimming pool, hardware store, gas station, cafe-restaurant, and “excellent medical care” available via the local nurses, with the rescue helicopter 20 minutes away for emergencies.
“It’s been 20 years I’ve been here, we’ve done a lot of stuff, and it’s been a wonderful, wonderful journey,” says Paul.
“I still wake up every morning, look across and see my wife is still sleeping and open up the curtains, look at and watch the sun rise over the forest and mountain peaks of the Kahurangi National Park, and think, ‘Shit, I’ve won life’s lottery.’”
“This place is my Shangri-la. Honestly, I love it. Love living here. Don’t want to go anywhere else.”
Paul Murray is the founder of the LivinginPeace Project.
www.livinginpeace.com
Paul originally from Australia, but have been living in New Zealand for 14 years. Before that he was in Japan for a decade working as a journalist. He met his wife Sanae in Japan and they married in 2008.
The Rongolian Star 
Murray Family Life in Sunny Karamea
Anabela Rea, Oct 24 2023: STUFF NZ
From Tokyo to Karamea: The Start of the Road at the End of the World’s Longest Cul de Sac.
Sanae and Paul Murray say life is sweet in this remote town of 700 people.
For Paul Murray, ex-journalist, art photographer, keen horticulturist, cultural enthusiast, real estate agent, former bed and breakfast proprietor, and family man; life in the little South Island town of Karamea couldn’t be sweeter.
Murray, 57, has been living in the isolated settlement of 700 residents cocooned between the Kahurangi National Park and the Tasman sea since 2003. With his wife, Sanae Murray, 41, joining him in 2004, they’ve chosen to raise their family there, to give their children a free-range lifestyle. Their happy and confident kids, Diva and Winston, are now almost 12 and just turned 9.
With one road in and one road out, Paul likens the town, including its peculiarities, mindset and biological diversity, to that of an island.
“We’re at the end of the world’s longest cul-de-sac, and a place we like to think of as the start of the road,” he say. “We’re 100km north of Westport, basically, on a no-exit road.’
Paul first visited Karamea in 2000 when he was living in Japan, working as a journalist and art photographer.
“I came to New Zealand on a holiday in about 2000, and looked at a map and I thought ‘Wow, the town right up there.’ I was driving around the south, and I thought we’re gonna look at that. And so I drove up here and just thought, ‘What an incredible place.’ And I just fell in love with it.”
He’s not the only one to drive down the no-exit road and decide to never leave. Paul says there are “lots of stories about people doing that”, including a Canadian friend, who has since died, who came to Karamea for a picnic and ended up staying for 40 years.
When Paul returned to Tokyo, he says he couldn’t stop thinking about Karamea. The following year, he bought 32 hectares of bush that borders the national park, then went back to Tokyo to work to pay for it. Two years later he moved there permanently, with Sanae following not long after.
“It’s been an amazing journey,” he says. So what’s so great about Karamea?
“It is a very stunning place,” says Paul. “It’s very much like a geographical island. You’ve got the Kahurangi National Park on three sides and then it’s sealed in by the Tasman Sea.”
“It’s the warmest, driest place on the West Coast, because it’s the furthest north. And interestingly, we’re actually north of Wellington. Because in maps the South Island is a bit skewed, we’re actually just north of Wellington, and we’re east of Timaru. So it’s a bit of a local joke: Where are you from, mate? Oh, just north of Wellington. Oh, the Kāpiti coast? No, no. Karamea.’
Because it’s remote, Paul says the residents are independent, resilient, and “interested in sustainable living and growing food”.
It’s a world away from the bustling streets of Tokyo, where Paul and Sanae first met. For her, moving to Karamea meant a new language, a new culture, a new lifestyle … and directly disobeying her father’s wishes.
Long since settled now, the family enjoy weekly calls on a Sunday to Sanae’s parents in Tokyo, and go to visit every year. They speak Japanese on the Zoom calls but English around the house.
“Speaking Japanese to my wife is pointless because her English is far better than my Japanese,” Paul says.
The family have their own little farm that includes 1.6ha of grazing sheep and 2000m² of productive gardens.
Before Covid, the couple used to run motels in Karamea, including a 10-bedroom 1960s ex-maternity hospital which they operated as a bed and breakfast. Paul estimates they served up 2,500 meals a year using their own garden’s produce.
The ease of growing all manner of fruits and vegetables is one of the key things that encouraged Paul, who has a degree in horticulture, to move here.
“It’s warm and sunny, and you can grow almost anything here. I was absolutely astounded by the range of different crops people can grow here. They can grow bananas.”
His garden includes plants you wouldn’t expect to be viable on the West Coast, such as macadamia nuts, Ecuadorian coconuts, feijoas, passion-fruit, and blueberries.
Paul’s long-term goal is to become a kawakawa “pepper baron.” A collaborative partnership is already underway with a local cheesemaker to create a sensational kawakawa-infused cheese. Watch this space.
His career in abstract nature photography began with a Tokyo exhibition of holiday photos from New Zealand. Far from the “snaps next to a giant gumboot” that his friends expected, the images were artistic captures, a lens into a landscape that Paul loves.
Pushed on by his friends to exhibit, he says the experience was unexpectedly “a phenomenal success”.
“It was unbelievable, the jammiest thing I’ve ever done in my life,” he says.
“So many people came, we had to close the exhibition down. And we had to employ a security guard to let a certain number of people in at a time. There was a line outside the restaurant for a block and a half.”
“And then because of the line, it attracted media attention, and suddenly, all these journalists were turning up wanting to talk to the artist and I’m thinking, ‘Oh no, is that me?’ Suddenly, I’m an artist.”
“I ended up in Japanese photo magazines, and then in the popular press in Tokyo at the time. And from then on, I was just doing exhibitions all the time, to the point where I kind of burned out a bit. I lost the passion for what I was doing, because I ended up sort of feeling like I was doing it for other people rather than myself.”
He met Sanae at one of the exhibitions, so it’s safe to say the experience was still resoundingly positive.
Paul has returned to creating art in Karamea, and is also an enthusiastic supporter of the arts community there. Sanae has produced 11 pop-up exhibitions in the town and he estimates that around 10% of Karamea’s residents are artists.
Will the Murrays ever move? Not a chance.
They’ve hosted multiple Japanese television crews and an Italian documentary team, all curious to learn why they choose to live in a place some consider to be the ends of the earth.
Their “ramshackle, work in progress, building site of a house” is a 100-year-old, three-bedroom villa, at the western end of Karamea.
The town has all the amenities that Paul considers to be important, from “one of the best schools in New Zealand” to a Vidal Sassoon hairdresser, a supermarket, heated swimming pool, hardware store, gas station, cafe-restaurant, and “excellent medical care” available via the local nurses, with the rescue helicopter 20 minutes away for emergencies.
“It’s been 20 years I’ve been here, we’ve done a lot of stuff, and it’s been a wonderful, wonderful journey,” says Paul.
“I still wake up every morning, look across and see my wife is still sleeping and open up the curtains, look at and watch the sun rise over the forest and mountain peaks of the Kahurangi National Park, and think, ‘Shit, I’ve won life’s lottery.’”
“This place is my Shangri-la. Honestly, I love it. Love living here. Don’t want to go anywhere else.”
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About LivinginPeaceProject
Paul Murray is the founder of the LivinginPeace Project. www.livinginpeace.com Paul originally from Australia, but have been living in New Zealand for 14 years. Before that he was in Japan for a decade working as a journalist. He met his wife Sanae in Japan and they married in 2008.