Ingrid de Bod is living the good life.
The Port Taranaki structural engineer, who moved with her husband to New Zealand from South Africa six years ago, lives in an off-grid container house on a farmlet, just outside of New Plymouth.
The couple constructed the house almost entirely from recycled materials, including building the home’s roof and walls from bits and pieces of an old calf shed they demolished.
The family, including their two young children, live completely off the grid, using a solar system for power and rainwater for drinking.
“We even have an off-grid spa in a section of native bush that’s filled from a fresh water spring and heated with a wood burner,” Ingrid says.
They organically farm cows and chickens, they have a fruit orchard and vegetable gardens, they make their own kombucha, yoghurt, and biltong, and dehydrate excess fruit.
“It started because we spent most of our money on the land so needed to come up with an affordable housing solution. Now, we get a kick out of living sustainably and reducing our footprint, and since having kids we’re even more invested in the future of our planet and ensuring our children and grandchildren have a clean and healthy world to live in.”
What does your role involve?
I look after the structural side of the port’s infrastructure, which includes the wharves, bollards, sheds, offices, wave wall, and light towers. I help with creating and reviewing lift plans for the complex lifts of cargo at the port, and plan the likes of our dredging campaigns. I’m also looking into how Port Taranaki can support new energy solutions, such as offshore wind.
What do you like about the role?
Every day is different and interesting – there’s so much to learn – and the location and people I work with are fantastic.
What are the challenges?
Coming from the oil and gas industry, the first challenge was to learn the port and shipping jargon – I had to make myself a list in the front of my notebook! Also being an engineer it’s easy to get sucked into the detail and get too technical, the challenge is to find a balance between the theory and what’s practical.
