Stick out yer thumb, grab yer cardboard, show a smile and hop along!

campervan to wanaka...woo!
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So off we went, Melanie and I, and hopped a happy ride to Greymouth with Hamish as he was going this direction. We said a bittersweet goodbye that was mixed between enthusiastic instructions on how to be approach the hitchhikin’ scheme and the usual hugs and such. But the priority of sir Hamish was to make sure we got off on the right hitchhiking foot. Which we learned was a key point. “Right. You just gotta get right out there! right in the middle of the road…eager and happy to get a ride! Show them that you’re the people they want to take with them! Those people who sit by the side of the road reading a book…no one’s gonna stop for them! But you two?! You’ll have no problem!” and as he’s saying this he’s running out into the street arms stretched out like he wants to give the oncoming traffic a giant bear hug and all the while leaping around in frantic excitement …as if to say “pick me! Hey! I’m right here…you can’t get past without noticing! (and swerving)” he was actually saying “come on girls! Get your sign out! This is how ya do it!” and I’m not joking…I believe it was the third car to come past…about 30 seconds since we started…and it pulled right over. “see, oh this is just great! Where ya going? Glaciers? Great!! You’ll just love these girls…wonderful!” and that was such a fitting circumstance for a goodbye with Hamish. He taught us the ways of the sure-fire hitchhike. Sure the thumb is there… but it’s all about the attitude.

all packed in
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Melanie’s friend explained hitchhiking as a great way to restore one’s faith in humanity and we were both ready to give it a go ourselves…obviously hoping to arrive at the same conclusion. Doesn’t hurt it’s also a convenient way to save some money. We had also convinced ourselves (and it is damn true!) that we were helping the environment. The all-natural carpool! “Hey! You going that way? Me too! Hop in!” We also decided that if the whole world operated on a similar system our roads would be much less crowded and our skies a bit freer of the dreary gray we call smog. Maybe there’s a business to start there…online carpool systems. Putting our future sustainable, world-saving business plans aside for the moment we focused on showcasing our lovely personalities to the passing traffic and a nice presentation of thy ever-vital cardboard signage.

well…yes…it’s entertaining watching people react to two girls hopping around with thumbs out, swinging cardboard around like a new semi-homeless musical has come to town.

melanie sports the thumb as we try and get to Te Anau
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As melanie said “it really does take a certain kind of person to pull over and pick up a hitchhiker”…and these certain kinds were all different kinds really! we met so many interesting people along the way. This kind of travel brought excitement to the transport aspect of backpacking. A part of travel that can often be stressful: finding a station, booking tickets, lining up, anxious waiting…all completely eliminated. sitting on a bus with heaps of people that would much rather, like yourself, prefer to be at said destination was replaced by new acquaintances all with unique stories. And of course I would be foolish to advocate the art of hitchhiking without stating some risk involved. In our tainted world today people are hesitant to even look at a thumber and I can’t lie that a couple of people that sped past I wasn’t sure I’d want to get in a car with them either. It really is a sad thing to snap-judge and I really try to avoid it (hence a later adventure) but the news reports we see everyday tell awful stories. That said…these occurrences are quite rare and again it’s unfortunate that the negative news wins the broadcast airways across nations. There are millions upon millions of normal, good-hearted humans out there and we interact with scores of them in our lives: on the street, in a store, restaurant, bar etc without thinking. But put that person in a car and woahh…don’t come near me! How many stories could there be about lovely, happy, sing-along hitchhike tales of new & interesting people and a fun way to travel! Hundreds if not thousands…but there ya have it. And as it happens, you don’t have to get in the car with someone…if you get a creepy vibe just say…ah…no I’m not going that way. They are trusting you as much as you are trusting them. The few crazies that exist out there put everyone in a state of fear. Which again creates another problem: the only people that will stop for a hitcher these days must be as out of his/her mind as the hitcher him/herself. But Melanie and I were ready to restore our faith in humanity and decided to take the risk…some said NZ was the only place you could still safely do it…others said it was just as dangerous as any place in the world…and I suppose hitching’s not for everyone. But anyway…there’s my statement of caution. Now, let’s go!

beautiful views out the window
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You really can’t get stressed when hitching…you just have to let it happen. When the right car passes and signals you’ve got your go. Hooray! Of course hitchhiking does have its challenges. But that’s also what makes it so fun and rewarding! Yes…rewarding! When you make it to a place you’re almost pleasantly surprised. Like…hey! We actually made it. You never expect too much, so making the destination sparks a bonus in your day. And just the bit of anxiousness that swirls as you set yourself on the side of the road unknowingly awaiting the arrival of your future ride…future driver…who could it be? This one?? Wooooosh. Nope. How about…you?! Whoooosh. Not today! And well…yes…it’s just entertaining watching people react to two girls hopping around with their thumbs out and swinging cardboard around like a new semi-homeless musical has come to town. With our sign (“we have chocolate”) we got many a smile and perhaps a chuckle as a car sped by. Pointers, gawkers, children hopping in the back seat in excitement “who are those people…what are they doing mummy??” “ruffians”. Others threw up their hands with the face of apology because they lacked space to pack us in. and still others waved and honked to plainly revel in the fact “weee have a ca-ar and you-ooo do-on’t!” and yet one mysterious signal we have yet to figure out is the side-point. The driver and/or passenger would blatantly point their arm across their body and point to the side of the road. At first we though ‘hey ya! He says he’s pulling over!” (we start making the mad dash for our gear) ohh…umm…maybe not. If anyone can shed light on this mysterious hand-signal of the road (there should be some sort of transients guide…really now) please let us know. Plus…in all of our experience no one ever asked for money…they were just happy to have the company. And we shared our chocolate of course. We were honest hitchhikers…may have been smelly at times…but hey…comes with the territory.

hang on back there!
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As I’ve already stated…our first ride was no problem. Immediately picked up and on our way to glacier country (you may be thinking: wait! Hasn’t she already been here? well…yes…but there is only 1 road to get anywhere in this country and as I was heading back south…it was back the exact way I’d came! But no problem in that…even driving in this country provides a sight in itself). This dude was an agricultural engineer on meat farms (funny for a car now with 2 vegetarians…we kept quiet about that of course)…just chatted about all sorts of things. You could tell, travelling on his own, he was just happy to have the company. and eventually, we ended up at our destination, Fox Glacier. How about that? We actually made it! That wasn’t so hard! Now we thought we’d try our luck and hitch to and from the start of the trail head we’d be doing for the next couple of days. No worries! (saved about $70 right there). After our tramping fun (another bloog for that tale) our next stop on the southern route was Wanaka. This was a bit further to go so we weren’t sure how we’d get on. We ambled down to the main road (really the only road in this town) and towards the end of town where people would be leaving to go south but spotted (horrors!) three other hitch-hikers! 3 guys. all together…good luck dudes. So…we were a bit nasty and set-up shop about 15 metres ahead of them…it’s war out here! I’ve no time for fair play! Took a bit longer this time…about 10 minutes…and suddenly a guy pulled up that I recognized! He had been staying in the hostel and I think I helped him turn the stove on or something. From germany…really cool guy. He recognized me as well and immediately told us to hop in. he had hitched all over the north island and now always stopped for a fellow hitcher. He also had a great experience with it, except one unfortunate incident where he got in a car with a drunk-driver…scary stuff. Luckily (and incredibly) the guy got pulled over and the cop told him to get outta there! yikes. Today he was only driving as far a Haast (wretched haast…there is nooothing there) but hey! It’s on the way…we’ll take it! More fun stories of life and travel (apparently new Zealand is the farthest you can get from germany) a few photo stops and many fast-taken, windy curves and suddenly we were saying auf wiedersehen and out on the road to catch another ride.

time to hit the road...
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Some nibbles of chocolate and a change into sun-screening clothing later (about hmmm…20 minutes) a campervan pulled over (probably perfectly timed with my statement that we could just forget about campervans because they can’t legally drive people around in the back…given the lack of seatbelts…or well…proper seats for that matter) and we hesitated to make the dash. Have I explained the dash yet? Well…after a bit you start getting hungry, or begin thinking a hat is a good thing to have…or your shoes would be better replaced by sandals in the sweltering heat and pretty soon your schtuff is spread all over the road. A car begins to brake and you can hardly believe it… “are they pulling over?! Or is someone just getting out to pee” …you begin to throw everything back into its somewhat tidier packed arrangement…and bolt in a full sprint towards the car. I’m not quite sure why the run is necessary. I mean…if they’re gonna take you in…I don’t think they mind waiting the extra minute. It’s not like they’re sitting in there going “nope roger…i don’t think they want the ride anymore…you see that slow pace they’re putting up…step on it!” I guess that’s it. We think that somewhere between the friendly wave of an arm and the hollered “where ya headed??” they might come to their senses, think “what the hell am I doing picking up hitchhikers! It’s 2008! They’re probably axe-murders!” and speed off in happy comfort whilst we kick the cloud of dirt stirred up in their afterburn thinking “if only we’d ran to the car…surely we could have grabbed on to the back fast enough! Or at least they could have seen our desperate faces up close”. it was always a bit embarrassing when someone would pull over and we’d do the mad dash and run grinning towards the car only to have them say “oohhh no no…we’re just looking at the map” or something inane like that. And the bags dangling off every available body part would come tumbling off us to the ground…tragically illustrating our poor, betrayed hitchhiking souls. Trickery…pure trickery. But anyway…back to the campervan! They did pull over and to our shock and amazement…they weren’t just stopping to read the map! They slid the door open, pushed some things aside and let us hop right in. The pseudo couch inside provided a seat. squished between our own bags, those of the drivers, and a couple of food coolers…it was a cozy ride. cozy in the way that your legs, arms, back and neck all seem to either fall asleep or go stiff. Good fun though. Without seatbelts we slid, slipped, flopped and bumped around the back of that thing like it was a rickety carnival ride that you assuredly know is both ridiculously fun and incredibly unsafe. These kids were from texas so melanie had a nice commonality to share…a rare creature to be seen travelling this world: a U.S. southerner. Nice people…but because the rattling in the back was so loud we couldn’t really hold much of a conversation. What we could hear though was a movie? Apparently they were watching Super Troopers up front. I just hope it was more the passenger and not the driver. Anyway…took a nice little nap and woke up spectacular views out the back-“seat” window. Could it be that I’ve already seen these sights? because they’re still making me press my face to the window like a kid pulling up to Disneyland. And if I scrunched down and craned my neck just so…I could gaze out forever…or until my neck went stiff. An hour or so later and once again we had made it. Broke off some chocolate for our generous drivers and hopped into Wanaka. We both agreed…this was what travelling was about. Every one of our rides supplied something a bit different. Our most adventurous of all came while getting to Queenstown…and because it is a whole story in itself I may just save it for when I get home (gotta keep some stuff to tell in person!)…but I’ll just say that it truly was an event that felt like something out of a movie… got my pulse going and mind racing. Of course it was all fine but when both of us finally got dropped off we looked at each other half laughing, half wondering what the hell had just happened! Don’t worry...i didn’t have to use my nalgene numchuck defence system or anything. These dudes and one of the guys 12 year old daughter, were just workin class, swearing, beer drinking, teeth missing, shower lacking dudes… (and apparently the perfect stereotype of people from Bluff, the port town they originate from) that’s all.

our first attempts...here we go! melanie's got the sign...i've got the chocolate
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We both came to realize that not only did hitchhiking provide the new map to saving the environment (and therefore the entire world) but we also enjoyed its unexpectedness, its variety, and its unmatched uniqueness kindly offered for each leg of a journey. In short, the plain adventure of it all. Waking up in the morning thinking I want to go here today but having no idea how it will actually happen was adventure enough. “right, here’s our destination: Oookay…get out the map. How many kilometres? How out of the way? Where’s the best place going to be to hitch the ride? Which color marker should I use today? You have the chocolate? Make sure the peanut butter’s on top of the bag this time. You think the sand flies are about today? (wretched creatures)” You know…the usual life-changing decisions. Very technical it was. But what I really mean is the excitement in it. That’s the real fun. Don’t know about melanie but I’d start getting stoked just when we talked about our plans to hitch! You just never knew. Long wait, short wait, station wagon, camper van, Mercedes?? (we never did get a moneybags driver…in fact every time I saw an expensive car approach our viewing horizon I said…well…just put the sign down and wave for this crowd. Lower class frightens these people and the last thing they’d want to be seen doing is picking up stinky backpackers. Can’t blame them I suppose. All in all we had an Argentinean, a couple hard-core trampers, a DOC worker, a German kid, the Texans, a beer delivery man, the very working class Kiwi ruff dudes, a couple from Spain and Australia who’s campervan had broke down and were forced to use a rental car for a day (works for us!), and finally some crazy but kindly Christians…that’s the real spirit of Christianity! Charity and generosity!

At the end of the short experience we had with hitching, I believe we would both wholeheartedly agree: “hitchhiking restores your faith in humanity”. Travelers, kiwis, young and old…all interesting people we would have never met otherwise. And now we could both say we’d done it…we’ve hitchhiked a bit of new zealand. Even the folks from Bluff that were a little (ok…very) rough around the edges were just nice guys trying to help out some vehicley-deficient backpackers.