Part One of a three-part blog entry about hitch-hiking around Central North Island.
(Does the title of this blog entry sound gross? It wasn't meant to. It was just meant to be a witty way of introducing my first blog entry)I had some time off from uni this week and I wanted to do something spontaneous. I also though a bit of a detox might be in order. So I decided that I'd hitch up to Tongariro National Park and do some walks, and generally stay out of trouble. I had thought that the most enjoyable part of the trip would be the hours and hours of walks that I had planned up and around the volcanoes. Even though that was absolutely amazing (and just what I needed), it turns out that the hitching was something I think I needed even more. Some people might think of hitching simply a means to getting where you need to go. I figured out pretty quickly that it was more about meeting fantastic people who I wouldn't normally really get the chance to meet - much less to get to know. I met such a great bunch of people while hitching around and I kept thinking if I could invite them all around to my place for a party It'd be such a sweet party!
At the end of each ride, I explained to my new friend that I had a wee blog and that I was wanting to get a picture of each person who picked me up so I could talk about them. I thought that if I did this, this might make my family a little less worried about me when I hitch! Pretty much everyone I asked agreed. Some were a little tentative at first, but when I described the size of my audience (small), they were happy enough to participate. Only two of them thought to ask me for the URL of my blog. Another two of my lovely drivers were not photographed. I will explain this when it comes time.
DAY ONE
Ride One: Simon (Johnsonville-Porirua)
(5-10 min. wait) Simon picked me up in a white, trade-person-esque van just past the on-ramp from Johnsonville onto SH1. Simon was the first (and youngest) of three builders I met on my travels. It was a short ride (J'ville-Porirua) so we didn't have much time to converse, but he told me that he'd been doing his carpentry course thing (details - yikes!) for four years part-time while working, and was just coming to the end of it which was just as well because he was pretty sick of it by now. He had the week off because he was in between two jobs. Can't quite remember why he was heading to Porirua, but it was a nice encounter while it lasted.
Grant picked me up in an ash-covered diesel Corona sedan. Grant is a Diesel Engineer by trade, however, he'd been taking it easy lately and has been working at a firewood yard. Grant had driven his daughter, Bethany, and her daughter, Ophelia, down from Taupo (where they live) so that Bethany could be there at her friend's book launch in Wellington. Grant had been staying with a friend just out of Porirua (near the recent big
fire), and this was why his car was covered in ash. He was driving up to Taupo via Waikanae, where he would drop me off so that he could pick up Bethany and Ophelia (that's where they were staying). Grant is a very lovely man, who made me feel very welcome. He is very proud of his family and loves them very much, and believes that Ophelia (his grand-daughter) is pretty much the most wonderful wee person ever. He is also a very conscientious driver, and made sure I knew that if I ever was feeling uncomfortable with his driving to let him know. He even got me to help him out spotting the different speed-signs, just to make sure he didn't miss any. Eventually we got to Waikanae and I met Bethany and Ophelia briefly. I thanked him very much and was on my way.
Ride Three: Grant (again), Bethany, and Ophelia (Waikanae-Rangipo)
As I was waiting for a lift in Waikanae, up pulls a familiar looking car. It's Grant again, this time with Bethany and Ophelia. He reckons I can actually fit in the car after all, which is great news for me because I had grown quite fond of Grant and was quite keen to get to know some of his family. As I said above, they were heading to Taupo so we established that they could drop me off in Waiouru. Bethany is really into horses, drawing and fantasy worlds/imagery. She owns multiple horses, and as a result of spending a lot of time with them, she can draw them really well. She designs tattoos, which usually involve horse-like dragons in various elegant/intimidating positions and she showed me a couple of her sketch books. As well as this, she's just started writing a children's fantasy book and will be doing the illustrations herself. She gave me the URL for her
art page, but I can't seem to find any of her drawings on it!
Ophelia, 18 months old, is Bethany's daugher and, subsequently, also really loves horses. She had a few toy horsies which she was waving around in her carseat. Ophelia is really cute, but don't trust her to eat an ice-cream in McDonalds because she'll just end up with most of it in her hair. It was lovely to see Grant with Ophelia. He regards her as a real blessing for the family and he loves her to bits. Really cute!
We got to Waiouru, which was where we were going to part ways, but Grant convinced me that it'd be just as easy to get to Whakapapa (where I was going to be staying) from Rangipo. Rangipo is at the northern end of the Desert Road. So off we went. Just as we got onto the Desert Road, Ophelia filled her nappy. As you may know, there's nowhere you can really pull over on the Desert Road, so we endured the "situation", windows open, until Rangipo. Ophelia seemed happy enough. We got to Rangipo, where a nappy was changed, a blog-photo was taken, and I was given the rest of a bag of cool mints! Thanks guys!
Ride Four: Un-named (Rangipo - Whakapapa turnoff)
After waiting in the hot, hot sun, at the turn-off in Rangipo for about 15 min, a tour-bus pulled up. The driver was a lovely, middle-aged, Māori woman, who was driving her usual afternoon route from Turangi back to National Park where she worked at a Backpackers. The bus was to take tourists back and forth between the various places around the mountains. Her grumpy boss was away on holiday so she decided to pick me up and not make me pay or anything, as she sees no harm in picking up the occasional hitcher. She was really quite cute and lovely. She was so surprised that I bothered to introduce myself, that she giggled a bit and forgot to introduce herself. I didn't push the issue, so she will remain nameless. She told me about her kids (who were now all grown up) and what they were up to. She remind me a lot of my mother, as she was really caring, and she had the same infectious laugh and smile.
We picked up a bunch of weary European tourists from the Ketetahi end of the Tongariro Alpine Crossing on our way and she was very careful in making sure everyone who was supposed to be on the bus was on the bus.
I was dropped off at the turn off up to Whakapapa. I told her about my blog and the photo-taking bit, and we kind of decided that maybe it wasn't the best idea to photograph her for the blog, just in case it got back to her boss that she was picking up hitch-hikers. I know that only a few people read this blog, but it was more to put her mind at ease, really.
Ride Five: Dave (Up to Whakapapa Village)
I think I must have only been waiting for five minutes before Dave picked me up in his truck-thing. He had been called up to Whakapapa Village to repair some car I think, but as we approached the village, a call came through on his radio that the job had been done and that he was no longer needed. So he cheerily dropped me off at my final destination, Whakapapa Holiday Park (where I would camp for three nights), and then Dave headed home to (I think) Taumarunui.
Fun times!! I may post a blog about my walks up at the mountains eventually, but it'll be after my series on hitching. Stay tuned for part two!
