After WWOOFing Dahlia and I entered the last stage of our journey, which was also the craziest! Our task was to hitchhike from Rotorua 200k up the Coromandel Peninsula, home to New Zealand’s best beaches. We were a little nervous but excited to see how this new method of transportation would go. Before I get into our adventures, let me just give a disclaimer that we were very careful – we always stayed together, didn’t accept rides with people who seemed sketchy, texted the license plate number to a friend, asked where they were going instead of telling them where we were going, only went during the day in areas that seemed safe, and kept all of our valuables on us. It was actually less scary and easier than I thought it would be and a great experience (although I would never do it outside of NZ and I wouldn’t plan on relying on it either)!
So we set off in Rotorua and made it pretty quickly to Tauranga in 2 rides. We grabbed lunch and dropped our stuff off to take a detour up the gorgeous Mt. Maunganui and enjoy the apparently rare December sunshine! Afterwards we got one more ride up towards the Peninsula so we could find a place outside the city to camp so we could continue the rest of the way in the morning. There was a perfect park just off the highway and thus our days of freedom and flexibility began!
So much stuff!
Camping spot
Enjoying the homelessness, eating breakfast in the parking lot
The next day we made it to our destination in Hahei without too much trouble in another three rides. Here we were staying with a really cool host from couchsurfing who works at the hostel in Hahei. Our weather was less than great but we enjoyed checking out the famous Cathedral Cove anyway and celebrated our success making it to Hahei.
Cathedral Cove
Then came the hard part – we needed to figure out what we were doing next. We had a few days to kill before we needed to go back to Wellington for our flights, the forecast was for days of rain, and in Hahei we’d be freedom camping with nowhere to leave our stuff during the day. I was antsy and not excited about the prospect of days of wet with not a lot to do. I decided to go to Auckland because Bernard was there with some friends for a concert and otherwise I would have missed the biggest city in NZ and Dahlia decided to join me for lack of anything else to do. Only three hours passed between our decision to leave and our arrival in Auckland – pretty good for a pair of novice hitchhikers!
Our time in Auckland passed quickly with unfortunate weather but great company. I was glad to get there even though everyone hates Auckland and it was just as dirty and characterless as I expected it to be. We spent our time wandering around and relaxing in the hotel room – it was much more about the people than the place so I barely have any pictures but we had a great time.
Excuse the profanity, in reference to the weather - this is my only picture of the Sky Tower haha.
In total we made it 400k with 8 rides over the course of 3 days, met some amazing people, and gained a great new experience of spontaneity. I don’t think I’ll hitchhike again but it was good to check it off my list with a great friend! From Auckland I took the bus down to Wellington, spent a night at my old couchsurfing host Kern’s, and then flew to Christchurch and now I’m enjoying my last few days here before heading home. I can’t believe how fast it’s gone by, what an amazing experience and easily the best six months of my life! Expect a summary blog soon.
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