The final hitchhiking hurrah... for a while

From my new thumbing spot on Hobson street, I set off again down south. The next morning, I got up and decided to try to get to Taumatawhakatangihangakoauauotamateapokaiwhenuakitanatahu - the longest place name in New Zealand and second longest in the world. It didn't take me long to get to Waipukurau where Delwin stopped and said she'd take me to Parangahau. We had a pint together and Del decided that I shouldn't go there, but instead should spend the afternoon and early evening in a pub garden with her and her mates. I agreed, and had an awesome time. Delwin gave me her son's bed for the night and took me to Dannevirke in the morning.

Delwin, and sunrise

The weather looked pretty foreboding, but after about an hour I got picked up by a swanky business car and a man in a suit. After about three minutes of casual chit-chat, he asked me "have you hitchhiked in the Bay of Plenty?" I responded that I had... turns out that this sharply dressed well-to-do hitchhikee had been a tattooed, backwards-baseball-capped hitchhiker in August. I'd hitchhiked with him from Rotorua to Whakatane, and apparently his fates had changed for the better! While we were freaking out about how cool this was, I noticed a strange red glow on the horizon. Turns out, that was the Southern Lights (like the Northern Lights, but down south) and we'd got to see them in the day. How crazy is that? My pictures don't do it justice unfortunately. I intended to make it to Wellington that night but instead made it to the Hutt Valley where I saw the set for Rivendell and slept in the hollow of a tree in the rain forest.

Fading southern lights; My tree cave; Rainforest Pahutakawa

It took me a little while to get to Wellington the next morning, in part due to the fact that my first ride, Felicity was fairly insistent on taking me to the closest train station. Very kind, but not exactly my style. I found some delicious vegan Malaysian food as well as old flatmate Steph from Auckland! Lovely catch-up and I got to sleep inside another night.
     Now that it was getting late in the week, I began to think about getting home to study. So, I headed north along the west coast. I made it to Wanganui and couldn't find anything I could do in my time so I decided to head inland towards Tongariro. Just as a woman and her dogs stopped to wish me good luck, a black camper van pulled over for me. Turned out that they wanted to go the other way towards Mt Taranaki but that worked for me too. We stopped to explore an abandoned railway station by the river - and we slept nearby

Laksa and abandoned railway station

The next morning was to be the return journey. But first we checked out the beach. Seems like people had had fun with the abundant driftwood on the black sands. When I got to Harewa, a Malaysian man invited me into his house for coffee which I accepted and offered to take me as far as Stratford. He promptly disappeared so I decided to make my own way (not knowing how fast he'd get back). I got to Stratford and decided to take an alternate route back along the Forgotten World Highway - no fuel for 100 km... making me unsure as to whether this was my brightest idea. Fortunately I got picked up and taken all the way through to Taumaranui. Though my chances were getting a bit slim to get a lift back to Auckland before dark (the sun was setting over the hill and I was about 3 hours away). But, a couple of Iranians facilitated my safe return by 10 pm. About 50 km out, we got pulled over for speeding... another hitchhiking first for me.

Patea beach; Fogotten World Highway: Taumaranui

Now we got back to school again. The weather's getting pretty awful, so hitchhiking adventures may be over for a bit... definitely not forever though!