Ride, ride, ride, hitchin’ a ride-
Hitchhiking is very common here in NZ. A big percentage of travelers I’m meeting are thumbing their way around the country. Everyone from pairs of guys to solo girls do it without any problems and it started to sound like something I should be giving a go.
My first pick up was a lady with, to my astonishment, toddler grandson in child seat in back. She dropped me off at an intersection she thought I’d have better luck at. Waiting outside of a B&B for about 45 minutes the owner comes outside and asks where I’m going. He was going the other direction, but came back outside 10 minutes later with a “WEST COAST” sign on a torn piece of cardboard and hands it to me with a smile and says “you need a good sign” (awesome)… I could see the immediate change from people fling from trying to not make eye contact to trying to read the sign… 5 minutes later a guy picks me up and kicked off one of the most interesting series of conversations I may have ever had…
First guy in his early 20’s moved to that town to meet his father for the first time that found him on a missing family member website. He discovered he also had a half brother and now lives with them practicing guitar with his first band that just picked him up. Next guy, who is still in my prayers, just came from the hospital and got the results back the following day on weather or not his 14 year old son has spinal cancer. The next guy looked like a carbon copy of the bounty hunter badass (ex soccer player guy) from the Snatch movie series. He opened the back door and says possibly the phrase you want to hear least from the guy giving you a ride “Just go ahead and throw your bag next to that rifle”… A hunter that also owned a landscaping company. We spent that hour developing an online marking strategy for him. Next guy from Zimbabwe worked in the peace corps for 6 years and relocated to NZ where he has a dairy farm with 750 cattle… Then the jet boat tour operator who made me promise out loud that the fly fishing hole tip he gave me would never be repeated. Next the student kayaking bus from a university field trip, followed by a guy that worked as a brewmaster for a small craft beer company. He and his two friends drove 3 hours south with a pickup full of meat and held an impromptu free BBQ in Christchurch after the earthquakes. And finally the grand finale- I stopped for lunch at a bar where I met 3 Canadians and an American who, just 20 minutes earlier, rolled over their rental RV. It was held up by 2 trees on the edge or would have fallen into a ditch that dropped into a massive valley with 100 ft fall with about an 80% incline (these are everywhere here)… Saw the pics, luckily nobody injured!… They were about to let me ride with them in the tow truck to the next town, but I magically connected with the bus I had booked and jumped in with them… (Whole other story)
All in all I had the snails pace of making it only about 120 miles over a 25 hour period from a total of 9 rides before picking up the bus. Miserably slow by hitchhiking standards in New Zealand. In fairness though I have looked in a mirror recently and if I saw myself on the side of the road there’s no way in hell I’m stopping to pick me up either.
Bob
Hello!!!