Hitchhiking in New Zealand: Lake Tekapo to Wanaka

Hitchhiking in New Zealand: Lake Tekapo to Wanaka

11th of July, 2025.

When I go down to town next morning, there’s much less people. I ask to drop off my backpack at a sports shop, for one hour only, and then I go to the church and to the lake. The lady from the shop, who has a jovial style but it’s probably in her sixties, is a bit uneasy at first, but later on when I come back to pick up the Hulk, she’s all friendly and when we talk about my travels she’s impressed.

By the time I get to the church, there’s only a few Chinese people around. Boy, they are inconvenient and inconsiderate when it comes to take their photos. They keep on taking the same shot over and over, while other people “have” to wait for them. How selfish! And they are also noisy! When I get to the lake, a bus of Chinese people arrives, and as they get there, my peace and quiet is gone. All I wanted was to spend some moments in silence by the lake. Nope! Not possible. I guess that the majority of the people on the planet are eager, to at all times, to be talking. That’s probably why the world is so fucked up. If we were spending more time listening, in silence, and looking into our inner selves, I’m sure things would be better.

I finish my biscuits at the lake. That’s my breakfast.

As I stand by the road, some cars pass by. Then a car stops a bit ahead, and they spend sometime rearranging their luggage. I have a feeling that it could be for me but I’m not sure. All of sudden, they stop in front of me, and I haven’t even seen them making the u-turn.

Wendy and Can are a young couple from Hong Kong. They both work at the immigration and are enjoying their holiday here. Can tells me that traffic in Hong Kong is so bad that if you can drive there, you can drive anywhere. And I think it’s funny when he says that he doesn’t understand when he sees people struggling to park in a very big parking spot, while in Hang Kong people have to park, real quick, in a spot half of that size. They like to hear about my travels and the drive to Wānaka, where they are going and where they drop me off, it passes fast.

I’m outside Wānaka and I didn’t think I would get here so late. I mean, it’s not that late but by being after 14.00 hours, my chances of getting a reasonable lift are smaller.

And I don’t get one. After two hours waiting and almost freezing, I get real sad with the fact I got stuck. Damn you New Zealand! There were two guys who offered me “something”. One older guy offered to take me to a town only 50 km from here. And a younger man said he wanted to help me because he was hitchhiking for two weeks when his car was broken, but he had to work today so he could only take me to Haast (what is written on my board) tomorrow. In both times, there was a tiny little something telling me to not accept it. So I didn’t.

I ask in the gas station across the road if they can help me. They don’t seem very keen to it. I walk to the house behind it, where there’s some smoke coming out of the chimney, but I can’t even find a way of “knocking” on the door or anything like that. Last, I ask in a house which seems a bit messy outside but as I see kids stuff around, I think it could be OK, even though I still have a small little weird feeling about it. The guy who talks with me gives me a weird vibe. He says his sister is going to Haast right now and he’ll ask her if she can give me a lift. She says no but he says he will ask his other sister, the owner of the house, who supposedly is cooler, if I camp around. But then he tells me to wait by the drive way, and if she says yes, he will come and get me. As I get to the road, I decide to get back to Wānaka and look for a church there.

As soon as I put my thumbs up, a white van stops. Gareth is all covered in a white powder and his van also. He’s a painter, which doesn’t make much sense to me with all these white powder. I look for the meaning of his name later, because something tells me that he was sent to help me, and it means gentle / kindness. We talk about my travels and all what happened today. Gareth choose one church to drop me off at it and he points me to the minister’s house.

I knock at the door but it seems like there’s nobody home. As I’m still waiting, I see a man coming out of the buildings behind the church, into his car and then back to the church. I come into the building and it leads to offices and the temple itself. I knock several times at the office’s door but nobody answers. I wait. Middle time, a random dude, with long hair and beard, and with his backpack and a bag of groceries, also kind of step into the building. He tells me that he came asking for help earlier and they couldn’t help him but told him to come back later. He rather wait outside, I wait here.

Finally a man comes out and I talk to him. Without saying a word about himself, his name, positing, or anything regarding the church, he leads me to inside the temple and shows me a space near the door where I could stay for the night. It’s warmer inside the temple. He shows me the lights and the kitchen, and tells me I can cook or make coffee and tea if I want. As he’s about to leave I decide to be brave and ask if he doesn’t have any food with him. Afterwards, apart from my healthy crackers early morning, I have had only one gummy bear the whole day. Yeah, I know, don’t ask. He looks inside the fridge but can’t find any food apart from some milk. He tells me to wait, he’ll be back. I start to get my things ready when he comes back with two small bags. Again, he reminds me about the coffee and tea, and asks me to lock the front door when I leave in the morning, and he even gives me the code for the outside locker, where the key is and where I should return it after I leave. I feel very grateful for his trust and for all his help.

The food is two fillets of chicken grilled, a big pie with raisins and icing sugar on top, and a big apple. I eat the chicken fillets immediately because I’m starving, then I make a coffee and have it with the pie. I save the apple for breakfast.

I get myself cleaned in the toilet sink, and I wash my socks and underwear. Then I read one short story from the Dubliners, by James Joyce, before going to sleep.

12th of July, 2025.

Only in the morning I realize that the dude from last night also spent the night in the church but in another area, a small part between outside and the temple. I have no idea what’s going on, and I’m too chicken to ask him. I eat my apple and make another coffee. I fill up my water bottles, wash the cups I used and then leave the building soon after 8 a.m., when it’s already daylight. I lock the door and put the key back into the locker. I also leave them a little note, saying how grateful I am for their help, and with the link for my blog and Instagram.