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| Pertty Mountain |
So, someone really ought to tell me to bring my fully charged, memory-card accompanied camera with me. So yeah, now I have a lot of pictures on various mediums over the last few weeks. Sooooo... what's happened? The All Blacks beat the Wallabies 51-20. That was pretty cool, then the following weekend I set off hitchhiking to Taranaki which contains the mountain of the same name, so that I could undertake a
help exchange. Clearly the mode of transport lends itself to some stories, so many of which, in fact that I've had to include 'appendices' to this entry.
I have never hitchhiked before. My mother was just a little bit worried when I mentioned the notion to her about an hour before I left, but undeterred I set off with a cardboard sign and a backpack to a petrol station right before the exit for SH1 south out of Auckland. Actually I started in a terrible place, but some lovely man told me to go further up the road. So, after about 20 minutes, I started my first lift from Auckland
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| How I've been rolling |
to Hamilton - in a taxi nonetheless! Four lifts later, and not a single penny paid, it was getting dark and I was in the middle of nowhere. Another lift got me to Te Kuiti - about halfway to where I needed to be. It was 8pm, but it was warm. After sitting at a park bench for a while contemplating my situation, I decided that rather than pay for a place to stay for the night I should do as the homeless do and sleep under a bridge. Unlike the homeless do, I had a 4 season sleeping bag with me.
The following morning, I set off to try to make it to my destination. Three more lifts got me there around 12pm. Soooo... clearly this took a
lot longer than it would have if I'd paid for it (24 hours versus 4). And yeah, being by the side of the road with loads of cars passing by your can kinda suck. However, I met 7 sets of people through it, and stopped in places that I would not otherwise stop. For example, I saw Mokau where I got stuck for about an hour (not much traffic), which is beautiful.
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| Vance and Kathryn's garden |
Anywho, I made it to where I was supposed to be and promptly crashed out before work started in the morning. Contrary to popular belief, I was not picking asparagus but instead helping at a garden, so that meant painting, planting and pulling up seedlings for the wonderful Vance and Kathryn. These few hours of morning work left me with afternoons to hitchhike around the mountain and the beaches and finish the day off with a hot meal. Highlights of this were climbing mount Taranaki (a dormant volcano), and Paritutu rock (a big rock), the former of which resulted in me thigh-deep in snow and thoroughly off the beaten path a couple of times.
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| The motel |
Next big trip I took was a week later, to the small town of Karewau, near Rotorua. I again hitchhiked there, starting with a guy hauling a 1964 (?) VW bug who again dropped me off in the vicinity of Hamilton. I'd been advised not to try hitchhiking all the way, so when I got to Rotorua I took a 10 minute bus, which lead me to meeting my first hitchhiking 'buddy', who we shall call Jamie as that is his name.
Again, I undertook a help exchange, but this time working at a motel for Raewyn and Peter. I had plenty of time to do things but unfortunately the weather turned a bit sour so my second week was slightly less eventful - though I did see some geysers with the other help exchange Fionahula (yes that's a real name). The second week is also currently slightly picture deficient - I forgot my camera charger - but this will be fixed when I get the pictures from my disposable developed.
So, that about sums it all up! I may go more in depth at some point - probably not. But there will be more pictures! It's back to school now for me. Oh, and although it is unlikely that any of the 43 people who gave me lifts will ever read this, I'd like to thank each and every one of them. I met so many people - from gangsters to grandfathers and from farmers to financiers. It does kinda show you that people are alright, really.
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| Pretty Mokau |
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| The approximate route. Around 1000 km, not including day trips. |
