Hitchhiking in New Zealand: Wellington to Turangi
17th of July, 2025.
It’s quite a walk to the main road, and for some reason my bags seem heavier than usual. When I finally get there, a disaster: I realize I dropped off my hat on the way. Shit! My stupid mistake was to carry it between my torso and Candy. I should’ve kept inside her. Now I have to walk back Loki knows for how long until I find it. And to make it things worse, I can’t even simply drop off Hulk anywhere here because half of the walk here are military buildings, and I guess they wouldn’t be happy with an unidentified backpack anywhere around their “premises”. So I’m so pissed! Fuck army! As I walk back, I know, I just know that at some point they will question me or what I’m up to it. When I finally spot my hat, I drop off both my bags in the floor (I needed the rest anyway) and walk the last 100 metres until the hat. Soon after that, as I’m walking back to the main road, a white van stops. There are two people on uniforms inside, and there’s something written on the van which shows that they work with the government / the military. The woman on the passenger seat asks me if I’m OK or “need any help”. Polite way of asking “what the fuck are you up to, lady?”. Without a smile, I just tell her about the hat incident, that I’m going back to the main road to hitchhike to Lake Tekapo, and I show her my sign. What I really want to say is go check in some real suspects, you idiot! Learn some skills about how to read people and real threats, and stop wasting my time and yours with innocent people! They wish me good luck and drive away. Prats!
A huge detour happens then.
My plan was simply to take the highway 58, and hitchhike from the intersection towards Lake Tekapo. But when Lewis stops for me, everything changes.
Lewis is just a local guy, he’s a bit old, and he’s simply going somewhere nearby. But he decides to take me to highway 58. On the way there though, as we talk, he realizes that it’s not a good place to stand by and hitchhike (I actually think it would be illegal as we pass by and I take a look), so he decides to drive me all the way to the west coast, to a place called Pāuatahanui. It’s a little detour, but he’s absolutely brilliant on thinking that! He says he has a friend there so he can visit him. Great!
Soon enough (a miracle for NZ standards), Roy stops. He’s going to visit his mum in a retirement home, in a place called Otaki. It’s not really far from here, but this place where I’m hitchhiking is not great, so I decide to take my chances.
Roy is a nice guy and very talkative. He’s the only son coming to visit his mum from time to time. He’s happy with this place he found for her. Apparently it’s really cheap, and still has a lot of activities and different things for her to do, so she doesn’t get bored. She’s 93 years old and she’s Chinese. Roy was born in here but can speak Chinese.
Roy drops me off a little bit further away than his final destination, in order for me to stand in a better place. Yay!
The next person to stop for me is very unusual. Probably one of the most unusual lifts I’ve ever got!
Chang is from Vietnam but he and his family came here over 40 years ago. They were staying in refugees camps. His car is entirely covered in trash. Yeah, trash. It’s mostly dry trash, like plastic bottles and other food packages, but it’s all over the floor and on the entire surface of the back of the car. He apologizes for the mess, justifying that this is his work car. In all my 7 years of hitchhiking, I’ve never been to such a dirty car.
He’s bringing some tires to drop off somewhere on the way and he’s going all the way to Taupo. We look at the map and decide that the best place for me to get out is Turangi, a small town just before Taupo. The reason is because my initial plan was to hike to the Emerald Lakes of Mount Ngauruhoe. But at the same moment we talk about that, as I check in MapsMe, I notice that the walk is about 4 hours one way. That means that even if I start early in the morning, it would be too much of a rush to hitchhike from Turangi to the entrance of the hike, up and down, and hitchhike back to Turangi before getting dark, which happens around 17.30 hours this time of the year. So, nope.
Chang starts taking about some intriguing topics. First he tells me that happiness is the same for everybody. I immediately disagree but I let him explain himself. Instead of simply do it so, he keeps on asking me some questions, simply because he thinks that if I answer in the way that he expects, I will naturally be drowned to believe his “theory”. Oh, Loki, he doesn’t know me…
I don’t really want to write down what he believes (and also he’s planning on writing a book anyway), it has something to do with the definition of happiness, and how we are all grateful for breathing / being alive every day, and that’s the only true happiness, every thing else, at least for him, it is only individual types of enjoyment. He also believes that the Earth is flat, and that we live in a kind of dome. I should’ve asked him to explain the dome theory to me but I guess I was just tired of listening to him. But now as I wrote I’m actually curious.
As I wait in the gas station for the rain to stop, I save a bird. It got inside by accident and then it hit one of the glass doors strongly, falling down by my backpacks. I slowly get to it and catch with my hands, just as one of the staff of the gas station is approaching with a cardboard box. I get all confused if this is a sign of the universe for me to stay or to go. Is it a sign at all?
It’ll get dark soon, so even though there’s still a drizzle going on, I decide to walk.
I first try a few restaurants for leftovers. In an Indian restaurant, a very quiet and nice man tells me I can come back later for something. Yay!
Then I walk to three different churches but can’t find anyone in any of them. As I’m on my way to the fourth, I get to the Fire Brigade, and decide to ask here, hoping that I will have another wonderful experience, just like the one I’ve had in Namibia.
I first talk with Ruben, a young volunteer. He’s very nice and listen to me, and even offer me a hot drink. He says we must wait for the chief, who is in his way, so he can tell us what to do. He mentions that there’s a lot of fire fighters who are church members and maybe they can help me with a place to stay, and that gives me some hope. As we wait, we talk a little bit about the life as a fire fighter.
When Chief Peter arrives I’m surprise in how young he is. I was expecting some senior dude but I doubt that he is over 40’s, even middle 30’s. He’s nice and tells me that I cannot stay inside (why not?) but I can camp in the back, in a small covered area outside. I take it! It’s not exactly what I was expecting but at least I’m inside the grounds and under a covered area. Also, as they have a small meeting going on, I can stay inside their really nice living room until the time I must go collect my leftovers food. I make some coffee as I wait, because I’m so hungry, and I can also use the toilet. Chief Peter even offer for me to take a shower but I say I’m good.
I go and get my food. When I come back and start eating is still streaming hot. And it’s so yummy! Plus it’s a huge portion, so I can keep half for tomorrow’s lunch. I brush my teeth inside and use the toilet one last time.
I have to wear all my clothes again but at least I don’t freeze at night.
18th of July, 2025.
I was hoping to make another coffee inside the fire brigade early morning. And I even hear some of the fire fighters working in the trucks, so I think that’s good. But my the time I finish packing my stuff, they are all gone already. Damn it!
I walk to the gas station again. It’s so busy! I have to wait for quite a while until I can ask for some hot water. I will have some of the muesli which I made at Kathleen’s house.
Another issue is, the people working at the gas station don’t look friendly at all. And that’s the thing about Turangi, there’s this really weird, dark energy around this small town. I felt it a lot yesterday and today is no different. I did meet a lovely elderly couple on my way to the gas station this morning, but I think they are tourists.
But at least I get my hot water, eat my muesli, and then I leave towards the tourist information center.
Same thing there. The lady with whom I talk is trying so hard to seem nice and friendly, that it seems that it’s actually hurting her. We talk about the Emerald lakes and she says that, even though it’s doable at this time of the year, it’s not very common for people to do it. She suggests me to do what I had already in mind: the hike alongside the river. When I ask if I can leave my backpack there, she says that because they are part of the council of the town, they are like an airport (no, you’re not), so they can’t really allow me to do it. Bull shit! What’s happening with the world?
Anyway, I ask in a sports game, and the guy let me drop off the Hulk there for a couple of hours. The hike is simple but nice. Some views of the region and the best part is actually a suspension bridge, right on top of a busy section of the river, beautiful turquoise waters, so it’s lovely!
10 Years Around the World 