Hitchhiking New Zealand as a Solo Female

I spent six weeks in New Zealand, and most of my stories from my time there revolve around my hitchhiking experiences.

Leading up to my trip to New Zealand I thought a lot about how I wanted to get from Auckland to Christchurch in a couple of weeks. I went through all the options:

- Rent a car ... Have to drive on the left. And too expensive

- Public transport ... Way too expensive

- FB ride share group ... Not very reliable

- Transfer Car ... Have to get cars from point A to B in a couple of days, which is usually not enough time

- Hitchhike ... Dangerous?  

I did a lot of research in to each option and read a lot of articles about people hitchhiking this magnificent island, and they were all amazing stories about locals and travellers alike helping people in need of a ride, and sometimes opening their homes to them. As I kept reading I started feeling a little envious of these people and their really cool travel stories and ultimately thought, "Fuck it, what's the worst that could happen?" I know..I know.. I could have been kidnapped or something but here I am writing this blog 4 weeks after leaving NZ and 6 weeks after officially ending my days of standing on a busy road with my thumb out! 

The first time I hitchhiked I sorta eased my way in to it by using the FB group. I still didn't know this guy, James, but I saw his post, creeped his FB profile, and thought "Doesn't look like a serial killer...cool!" We met at a shopping mall in Auckland, and off we went. I was surprised at how easily conversation flowed between the two of us and the ride, to me anyway, flew by and before I knew it I was in Tauranga. I had nothing planned, not even a place to stay, so James invited me to this drifting competition he was going to. Even though I was having no luck finding a place to sleep that night, I decided to enjoy this new experience and go with the flow. It may come as a surprise to some, but it was my first ever drifting competition. We got box seats with his friends and we all just sat back, drank, and enjoyed the show. Around 10 pm, when the competition was over it sank in that I still had no where to stay. Thank God I tagged along though because James' friend was so kind and let me crash at his place. And I happily woke up to his adorable baby girl crawling towards me. Will never forget this first experience. And I have a killer tan line from the entry bracelet that I wore until this week. 

After Tauranga I headed to Hahei in true hitchhiking style. I took a bus to where the receptionist at the hostel recommended me to go to. In NZ (and I'm sure everywhere) you're not allowed to hitchhike on the highways... the only problem with that though, is in NZ their highways are 1-2 lanes so I could never really tell. As I got off the bus I asked the driver "is this road ok to stand on to hitchhike?" She looked at me wide eyed and fumbled over her words as she said "yes. But be safe." Now, many blogs I read about people hitchhiking talked about how they'd wait anywhere from 5 min to an hour until someone stopped, so I was ready to be there all day. But within 2 minutes a truck pulled over.

        **Now me and my dad had a rule. Before I get in with anyone, ask to take their photo and send it to my dad along with their plate #**

Keith accepted the photo with a huge smile and I hopped in. He said he couldn't take me all the way to Hahei but could bring me about half way. We drove for about an hour and started to get to know each other. He's from Australia, but comes to NZ in the summer to escape the crazy Australian heat. When he saw me he "had to pull over"afraid that if he didn't, someone not as nice would. We talked about my trip, his cousin getting married, trans people (that got awkward real quick), and once he dropped me off, we hugged and I went on my way. I walked a bit to get to the next stop. Was looking for an intersection, and somewhere people could pull over easily. Once I got there I probably waited another 2-3 minutes before Bill pulled over. Bill is originally from Isle of Luis in Scotland but moved halfway through his childhood so has a funny, half Scottish, half Kiwi accent. He also told me was a little worried seeing me so that's why he stopped. I found out that he's a Matheson which is my best friends last name, so he was telling me about his family history and we agreed that they are probably related somehow :P He also used to be a cop and told me a lot of funny stories as we went from town to town. 

After these two, I have a hard time remembering everyone's names.. So.. :)

Leaving Hahei to Rotorua was quite a lot of rides, but fun nonetheless. At first I thought "not going to get picked up here" because it was a small road, no where to stop, and not very busy. But to my surprise after 5 min, two girls stopped. The one's name was Caitlin and that's all I remember. They went to Hahei for Caitlin's birthday and were talking about how they've always wanted to pick up a hitchhiker, but they always looked old and creepy. Luckily I'm not old or creepy looking!! They drove me 2 hours to Hamilton. We had a fun time together, and I was just happy some young people had picked me up. They dropped me off, and as I hopped out of the car and stuck my thumb out another car pulled over immediately. Like, the girls were still trying to merge back on the road when this new car pulled over. These guys were also pretty young, and siblings as well. They drove me for about half an hour. Not much talking happened, and if I'm honest.. Didn't really know what the woman said half the time cause the windows were down. I grabbed some lunch in the next town and headed out again. This time a mom and her 11 year old  daughter picked me up. The mom said that I looked nice and her daughter was scared to stop so she did it to teach her not all strangers are bad. The girl warmed up to me though after finding out I'm from Toronto cause her fav Youtuber is from there. They drove me for about 20 minutes. 

Ok. This next dude ended up playing a huge role in my NZ trip. So he deserves a new paragraph. That's how it works, right?

So. Rob pulls over in his sparkling blue pick up and I ask, "You going to Rotorua?" and he smiles and says, "sure!" At first I was a little worried with his answer but he then told me he just bought his truck, Rotorua isn't TOO far, and he let me take a picture of him (in his cowboy hat) to send to my dad.  But before I got in he said "You're not boring are you?" and I replied with "don't think so!" We got a long real easy and the 2 hour drive turned in to a 3 hour drive with stops along the way of him showing me some beautiful views. Once in Rotorua he gave me his number and said "Look. I have a place in Lake Taupo, and another in Wellington. Seems we get along, if you ever need a place to stay give me a shout." And sure enough I did! I mean.. he was nice, it was a free place.. I kinda just had to.

A couple of days later I went to Lake Taupo to stay with Rob. I hitchhiked from the Waitomo Caves after doing some tubing through them. Got a 5 min ride up the street by a lady that did the same excursion as me. She told me about her hitchhiking experience, years ago in Europe. The next lift I got was from another truck driver. He was very kind. Was going to pick up some bees! The third guy was Maori. He was going to paint some houses when he picked me up. He dropped me off in probably the weirdest spot I've ever had to hitchhike from.  It was me and a field of cows. 3 cars went past every 5 min and no one was stopping. And, to top it all off, it was raining. It was the first time I thought, "I'm not going to get picked up!" However, after waiting 15 minutes a 19 year old guy picked me up. We drove for about 2 hours to a town an hour away from Taupo. That's when I texted Rob and he came and got me from there. I stayed 3-4 nights at his families summer home and had such a fun time. He drove me around town everyday, took me out for food, offered me a free bungee at his friends job (I couldn't do it.. was too scared) and even payed for us to do a jet boat near the Huka Falls.

Now i'm sure you're all wondering, "How old is this dude?" Well, he’s 48. And it was actually kinda cool our friendship and one I will never forget. In my eyes he was almost like another father figure to me. We had a lot of deep chats, he told me about his insane life (he's had his eye pulled out at a bar.. but that's another story), and turned them in to life lessons for me. I think I learned a lot about myself since being around him and he actually taught me how to appreciate life a lot more, which I think is something we should all be doing. While in Taupo he told me about a motorbike tour he was going to do with a bunch of other guys through the south island. And said that I'd be more than welcome to join them all. I told him that I'd think about it and then made my way to Napier. Rob has family there who he was going to visit so he drove me up.

I left 4-5 days later and headed to Wellington to stay at Robs other place! This was the only time I've ever had a weird experience. The first guy who picked me up was Maori . We drove about half an hour, he was very kind and told me all about their culture and traditions. The next guy was a business man heading to work. He Facetimed his sister the whole car ride. The next was a woman returning home from visiting her family. And once again her thought process was "She looks nice!" She dropped me off just outside a town about 3 hours away from Wellington. I held my sign up and stuck my thumb out and pretty quickly a truck pulled over. Now, normally I run over, chat a little with the driver and then get my things and hop in. For some reason, that I will say was my women instinct kicking in, I grabbed all my bags, put them on and started walking towards the truck. As I was putting my bags on I saw out of the corner of my eye the driver get out and stand in between the two carts he had attached to the vehicle. I could only see his feet, and I thought, "just keep walking." Now, I'm not 100% sure but I swear he was peeing.. or that's what I like to think and not that he just had his dick out.. but there it was. Obviously I just kept walking. He said, "you going to Wellington?" and I casually replied with, "oh no thanks! I just realised it's noon, so I'm going to grab some lunch in town! Thanks though!"As I kept walking he yelled after me saying, "wait!! Come back, I have to show you something!" And I said, "It's ok, thanks." I think the main thing I was worried about with hitchhiking was having to come up with a lie to get me out of a lift and to this day I can't believe how easily that lie just flowed out of my mouth!! Thank you women instincts!

As I was walking in to town, and kinda processing what just happened and hoping he wouldn't pull over again, I heard "You still going to Wellington?" I turned around an in this very small car were three huge guys. And like, muscle huge! At this point I had read about how a single female should never get in a car with a group of guys, but they let me take a photo of them, and we set off. Learned that the one was Maori, the other from Fiji and the other from Kenya. They worked in Wellington loading logs on to boats! The car ride mostly consisted of small talk and very loud music. At one point the one guy said we were going to stop to visit his grandpa, and my mind immediately went to, "Omg! They're going to kill me." Wasn't helping that my maps was telling me we were heading not towards Wellington. But sure enough, my maps corrected itself and I actually met the guys grandpa. Once in Wellington, Rob picked me up and since it was a surprisingly nice day out he took me around the town on his beautiful, red, shinny, Harley Davidson motorcycle! The next day, he headed to Lake Taupo and I got to stay in his place for 2 nights by myself! 

Once I finally made it to the South Island I had about 4 days to kill until this motorcycle tour thingy started. I really wanted to do Nelson/Abel Tasman but was in Picton and didn't really know how I was going to go from town to town. Well I mean, I did.. but I wasn't feeling up to it. That's when Eeva messaged me on Facebook. She had seem my post on the group and offered me a ride. We ended up being across the road from each other in Picton, so within the half hour we met and were on our way. It had been a long time since I had met another female traveler, especially one that I really got a long with instantly, so our ride was really nice and I enjoyed getting to know her and talking about girly things! Once in Nelson, we grabbed some lunch, talked about our travel plans and decided to meet up again in Queenstown.

After 2 days spent in Nelson, Rob picked me up again and we headed on this 4 day adventure to Queenstown. We'd have our meals with all the other guys he was travelling with, but once we were all on the road people did whatever they wanted. So Rob and I decided to do all the touristy things. We saw the Pancake Rocks, some glaciers, and my favourite.. Milford Sound. Me, Rob and all the guys did a boat excursion through Milford Sound and it was absolutely breathtaking. The weather kinda sucked but I was told it's always raining there. They once had a drought..... no rain for 5 days. They also have around 1000 earthquakes a month there. But because of the rain there were tons of waterfalls everywhere, which was beautiful. We even got to do a underwater observatory which was pretty cool, but unfortunately didn't see any dolphins or something like that.

And that's basically where my hitchhiking experience ends! I feel like reading this I can't really do justice to the conversations and experiences I had with all these amazing people. And I didn't even put everything in cause I don't want this to be too long of a post. Even with that one weirdish experience I still loved every second of my time in NZ and it's mostly to do with the people I met while hitchhiking. I would and do recommend hitchhiking to everyone that's going there. I dunno if I'd do it anywhere else though. I would have never guessed that I'd make friends while doing this, but am so glad I did! I just want to thank everyone who stopped for being so kind to me and giving me wonderful stories to last a lifetime! 

To anyone looking to hitchhike NZ, here are some things that I learned while doing it myself!!

1. Look good! It helps if you're not dressed like a hobo!

2. Stand near an intersection where people need to slow down, gives them more time to check you out and decide if they're going to stop.

3. Make sure there's plenty of room for people to stop without holding up traffic. 

4. Have a sign saying where you're going. I always had one but I can imagine it saved so much time. People will know where you're going and you don't have to deal with, "where are you going? Oh. I'm not going there." 

5. If you have a lot of things with you, put them off to the side.. sometimes people won't stop if they see all the shit you have.

6. I honestly think it's better to travel alone, or at least with 1 more person. People aren't going to stop if there's 5 of you. Not enough room

7. Smile! And wave back at people. A LOT of people just waved at me, I like to think that the people who did pick me up saw me smiling and waving at people and thought I looked nice.

8. Trust your gut!

9. Be ready to tell the truth. And be ready to lie. If you don't feel comfortable getting in to a car, either be comfortable telling them straight up or coming up with a lie on the spot.

10. Get a SIM card. Yes it's kinda expensive.. but would you rather be able to send photos to someone you trust, call someone if need be, follow on maps where your driver is actually taking you... or risk it and potentially have something bad happen to you.

11. People don't advise people, especially solo females, to get a ride with truck drivers and groups of guys. I was fine, but I do understand why it might be dangerous. 

12. Be sociable. I get it's cheap, but for a lot of people that stop they're lonely and want some company on their long drives! So be ready to talk a lot. 

13. Have fun!! You'll make stories that'll last a life time! Enjoy it!!

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