Rotorua
When researching what I might do in New Zealand, many people suggested I hitchhike around the country. It’s apparently very common here, relatively safe and keeps costs down in an expensive country. I was a little nervous as the idea - I’ve only hitchhiked before in very specific places where I knew it to be ok - but in the spirit of adventure I thought it was worth a try. After some online research, I stood with a cardboard sign in what is apparently the best place to be picked up in Auckland (a left turn lane with lights and a pavement just before the motorway south) and… no-one stopped. One nice man rolled his window down to apologise he wasn’t going the right way, but that didn’t help much.
After some more research online I discovered that Auckland is one of the toughest places to hitch a ride as everyone is still in their city mentality, just wanting to get out and on the road without needing to interact with strangers. As luck would have it, Paddy, the husband of one of Sara’s friends came to my rescue - he was driving in a similar direction that evening. I got a lift with him and made it to Rotorua.
Rotorua is famous for its geothermal activity - it’s on a patch with a huge number of volcanoes, and as we entered the city there was visible steam rising all over the place into the night air. Paddy had suggested Waiotapu as a good place to see some geothermal sights nearby - the only issue being it was a 30 minute drive away. Ideal I thought, wanting to give hitchhiking another try. I looked up the best place to stand, and sure enough, within 15 minutes I had a lift with a lovely Chilean man who had been living in New Zealand for years. We swapped as many stories as we could on our short ride, and he was kind enough to take me right to the door of the park, a few minutes out of his way.
The park itself was a kind of beauty I haven’t really experienced before. Steaming cracks in the ground, steaming pools and lakes, craters formed by acid erosion, boiling mud and many seemingly unnatural colours left by minerals which had come up from deep below the ground. It felt like an alien planet at times, so different was it to other landscapes I’ve seen. After a couple of hours of solid walking along the three trails the park offers, I decided to head back to town. I headed out to the main road in the hope of hitching a lift, but bad news: roadworks meant half the road was shut to traffic. The only realistic place for cars to stop in order to pick me up was now gone.
One of the workers suggested I walk further down the road where there was a lay-by, however after consulting a map I realised this was a 20 minute walk down a high speed road with no pavement - not a good idea anywhere in the world. My only other option was to walk an hour loop, which took me to the same place on a smaller road. I set off, thinking I could perhaps hitch a ride on that road even just to the lay-by I was trying to get to, but it appears the hitchhiker’s thumb is not a universal signal - cars of tourists thought I was just saying hello and were happily waving back. I successfully walked to the lay-by - also a petrol station and a honey farm - and after 40 minutes or so standing roadside with not much luck I started to get a little concerned. The issue with hitching somewhere without all your belongings is that you have to count on getting a ride back, and there’s little backup if you can’t. I changed tactic and held my sign out to people leaving the petrol station - they were already stopped after all. Almost immediately, a very kind (if a little odd) man pulled up in a truck and offered me a lift back. He spoke most of the way about his life, which had many ups and downs, told me a little aggressively how happy he was, and told me to stay clear of crystal meth. I was very grateful to get back home, and also quite grateful to get out of his car after half an hour.
This experience made me rethink my hitching plan. Hitchhiking is a lovely concept, and I’m glad I gave it a proper go, but it’s very time and energy consuming - I lost time in Auckland, and I walked a few extra hours in Rotorua just trying to get around - and with limited time here I don’t want too much of it to be spent trying to find good hitching spots on highways. It’s also extra risky in the winter, as the sun goes down early and it can get cold. A new plan was required…