Meet The Community

We have a large team of highly-skilled and educated people behind the Ariki Project, 26 shareholders. Find out below why we are involved and our background that supports this special project.

*Please note: we have some of our community yet to be loaded to this site.

  • MY WHY: My vision is to form a blue zone, regenerate farmland and Kaipara harbour, leave a healing legacy for NZ society, have an urban escape, food security, and a place to raise children.

    MY EXPERIENCE: A property management degree with over two decades of extensive experience in business planning, finance, and project management, including successfully launching numerous ventures. I love working with people and have a proven track record of finding innovative solutions to overcome challenges.

  • MY WHY: Community living as an alternative to existing living. structures. EXPERIENCE: Creator and supporter of a community.

  • MY WHY:
    To have a connection to whenua. To use my skills and be part of building a community.

    MY EXPERIENCE: Water and waste water engineering.

  • MY WHY: I want to live alongside awesome humans with my future family, people willing to get the job done, and experience the beauty of getting to know people in an authentic way.

    MY EXPERIENCE: Business Management, Brand Marketing and Business Development Management, Project Management, Publisher, Editor and Writer.

  • MY WHY: I’ve always wanted to have a place that I can finally call home, where I can set up my sanctuary, my little cosy home with a garden and a few animals in community. From this place of love being able to expand across the project and pour my passion and experience into the land and social structures.

    MY EXPERIENCE: I have lived in 2 other communities for over 7 years, for most of that time I was supporting management structures along with teaching various modalities from Syntropic farming to Yoga teacher trainings. For a living I have been working in property development with my father for over 15 years, which gives me a good understanding of working with council, planners and a variety of professionals when in comes to building and working with land.

  • MY WHY: I believe that it is possible for people to live in harmony with nature and this project offers the platform and necessary components to achieve that goal. Its members are a diverse team of individuals who share that vision and possess the skills I lack to make that goal a reality

    MY EXPERIENCE: I have extensive knowledge and experience in permaculture and landscaping. I possess the ability to imagine an end goal and take the first steps necessary to achieve that goal.

  • MY WHY:
    >I have always loved the idea of community living, sharing resources, raising kids in a village

    > Have always been eco-conscious

    > Feel particularly frustrated by the profiteering crisis we find ourselves in by banks, utility companies, supermarkets and no government action

    > Love that this is a solution to the housing crisis, environmental crisis & profiteering crisis

    > Would love to be mortgage-free as soon as possible so I can be financially independent from the bank and so that the money I earn is my own and can be used to set up my future

    > Love the ethos of NZSpirit & Ariki

    MY EXPERIENCE: I am a full-time Project Manager and part-time Photographer and I intend to lend my skills to the community in these areas. I'm also an avid cook and gardener and I would like to be involved in the culture circle at Ariki as well as the circle dealing in new business ventures on the farm. Particularly love the idea of the farm-to-table cafe and want to get involved in growing the community market gardens. I have volunteered at the NZ Spirit Festival before in the kitchen. I am spiritually minded and interested in eco villages and community-based living. I have travelled extensively to over 70 countries and love bringing different cultures together in unity.

  • MY WHY: I love living in community and I especially love living in communities that host festivals. My connection to the land and the people made the decision easy.

    MY EXPERIENCE: I have experience in mediating between residents at communities if there is conflict and I believe my experience around managing festivals / building infrastructure / gardening / growing food and building community are good skillsets to help Ariki.

  • MY WHY: Vision of a different approach on living in community.

    MY EXPERIENCE: Lifelong experience in creating communities in different countries

  • MY WHY:
    To be in a community that is a home for people and animals who work for the regeneration of natural systems and permaculture principals. A beautiful, wild location, with people seeking similar life paths. To help create a place that is resilient in all ways and to contemplate, recharge and just be

    MY EXPERIENCE: Gardening, permaculture designs and projects. Educational endeavours Organising things!

  • MY WHY: I joined Ariki because the vision is not only compatible with mine but is the only sensible or sustainable pathway for our planet.

    MY EXPERIENCE: Education, setting up wellbeing centre, permaculture, organic food distribution, natural food manufacturing, project management etc

  • OUR WHY: We wanted to be part of a community that models sustainable and affordable living, honouring the purpose of social beings who can support each other in our endeavours to grow.

    OUR EXPERIENCE: Sonia, social aspect of permaculture, openness to listening, facilitating, counseling.

    John, building, listening, men’s work.


  • MY WHY: Like to be in a Community. Love the Ariki farm with the view of the Kaipara harbour.

    Living in proximity to that little bit of bush with the sweet creek and its many water holes is choice!

    MY EXPERIENCE: My background is in raising children. My passion is growing fruit trees. I’m involved with the People’s Health Alliance on Waiheke as a BodyWorker practising Shiatsu, The Bowen Technique crossed with HotStone Massage.

  • MY WHY: I am deeply in love with this living animate Earth, and am honoured to focus my devotion as a guest, a guardian and gardener of this beautiful whenua here on the Kaipara

    MY EXPERIENCE: Working on a number of projects and communities focused 'beyond' sustainability, my role can be described as a vibe architect, director (Why Waste), permaculture designer, systems design thinker, activist and advocate, storyteller and ocean voyager.

    Comms for Leo in this work:

    https://www.whywaste.co.nz/

    leo@whywaste.co.nz

    https://www.instagram.com/whywaste.nz/

  • MY WHY: I believe in coming back home to the land. Learn from her, be in tune with the cycles and create a reality in collaboration with Mother Nature and with each other. The Ariki Project is a gateway for the creation of beautiful things, that can reach out to the wider community too. I feel excited to be with people who share a vision together, who want a world made of authentic connections and full-body experiences, who respect diversity and believe in unity. I want to be part of regenerating the land, and with her, us as well.

    MY EXPERIENCE: I lived in Wellington for 7 years working as a freelance artist, dance and yoga teacher. In the last 4 years, I travelled to Aotearoa meeting diverse lifestyles and communities, doing various jobs and living life differently from what I did before. I found myself in Nature most of the time, remembering, embodying the sacredness of being and honouring life. To this Project I bring all of I’ve experienced in my life, all of I dream of and I feel joy for.

  • MY WHY: To build community. Fostering a cultural shift toward living in harmony with the land, and developing commercially viable solutions to nurture and future-proof sustainable community living. Ariki Estate’s principles and philosophy of land stewardship, regeneration, community building, transparency and co-governance, offers the greatest prospect of forward thinking and practical potential I have encountered in New Zealand to date. The huge opportunity I see here is in building a modern foundation for reciprocity and replication, to develop ways and means of caring for the land, and thriving in community. Supporting people and the local ecology, in a real-world demonstration of a new reality we want to live and share. The Ariki team’s diverse backgrounds, with incredible breadth of abilities, coupled with their unwavering commitment and dedication, brings forth unprecedented collective strength. Ariki is in alignment with where I want to offer my skills and background, to develop and uphold authentic being/living in the world, to establish a foundation for future generations who can wholeheartedly follow in our footsteps. I am incredibly excited for what we can co-create together.

    MY EXPERIENCE:

    I have been deeply involved in community building initiatives, throughout my corporate career, in my personal networks, the health and wellness events space, and in many communities who support, contribute to, and curate large scale festivals in the UK. From offering operational oversight, strategic roadmapping, forecasting of commercial outcomes, budgeting, managing infrastructure, and building assets — to coordinating cohesive teams, and the nurturement and development of people; in alignment with community values and its long term vision. Additionally, I've developed communication platforms, overseen task and project management systems, community policies and health and safety protocols. All these efforts are geared towards serving the community, identifying and creating opportunities for long-term value generation through collaborative strategic initiatives; while establishing standard operating procedures and community guidelines, to be in right alignment with a Kaupapa.