.86974789916″>
The couple, who spent six years living a primitive life in the wilderness of the South Island – sleeping under canvas, hunting wild animals and foraging edible plants – now live in a small cottage in Bulgaria, near the border with Greece.
With Raine no longer able to accompany Lancewood on her adventures, the Dutch-born Kiwi has been discovering what it’s like to adventure solo.
Her new book Alone in the World, following on from her best seller Wild at Heart, confronts the reality of continuing to live without her companion of some 30 years by her side.
They had one last wild New Zealand summer in 2021, Lancewood, 43, tells RNZ’s Nine to Noon.
“Peter was suffering back then from the kidney failure, so for him, living in the wilderness was not possible anymore, and we needed a house, a proper house with a roof, instead of a tent.”
They bought a cottage after a walking trip in one of Bulgaria’s “fading villages” in the Rhodope Mountains, she says.
“We didn’t think we would live there forever, in this cottage, but it was very convenient when Peter could not live in the wilderness any longer.”
Raine has decided not to have dialysis and has already lived longer than his doctors said he would without treatment, she says.
“The doctor had already taught me that the side effect of kidney failure is high blood pressure, and he told me that he would most likely suffer from a heart attack and then die, so I knew this.”
One “beautiful, warm afternoon in the autumn”, he complained of chest pains, she says.
Raine told her not to call for help. She went to bed terrified he would live the night, she says.
“It is very easy to say you’re not afraid to die, but what happens with you when you are actually facing death right there? You need so much courage to say, okay, I surrender. Either I will live or I’ll die.”
But after four days rest Raine made a recovery from what she suspects was a heart attack.
“Every morning, I think, is he alive or has he died in the night? So, for me, death is very close by, and I have to accept that, and such is life, for everyone, actually, not only Peter, for me the same, so we have to cherish every single day because it’s very important to love life while you’re living.”
She has continued to pursue a life of adventure, traversing the Himalayas, hiking through Tajikistan and hitch-hiking across Turkey.
“I’m very aware that one day I will be alone. Alone in the world is my future. It’s my fate, that is for sure.”
