HItchhiking in NZ?

When I was younger I used to hitch hike. I hitched all over the world. The only place I ever had a knife pulled on me in a car was here in little old NZ. I think in recent years hitching has gone out of fashion for the main stream. If you look clean and smart then you will be in the minority. The hitchers I see along the roadside these days are a pretty scruffy lot. One point about hitching to trailheads is that some of them are fairly remote and you can't count on a lot of traffic.

Oo oo! Tell us the knife story!

LOL! It was way back in the mid 70s when I was a young lad and was hitching around to see the countryside. A car pulled over to pick me up around Waihi. There were 4 guys in the car and the guy in the back LH seat got out, put my pack in the boot and indicated for me to get in. I ended up in the middle in the back seat. These days we would recognise these guys as gang members but I was young and naieve then. I can't remember the conversation but at some stage the guy in the front LH side got a knife out and was holding it in his right hand with his arm along the back of the seat. he was twirling it in his fingers in front of my eyes. Just being smart alec to give me a fright I guess, It had the desired response but they did pull over at Whangamata where I wanted to get out, obligingly got my pack out of the boot for me and headed on their way. The only other incident I have had that was comparable was being propositioned by a homosexual Scotsman wearing a kilt in a Honda Civic in Scotland. He wanted me to come back to his place to try on the family tartan and probably a few other things too. Managed to walk away from that one as well.

I have hitched a lot in New Zealand and other countries. One bad experience was being picked up by a bad driver, drove at speeds of over 120km an hour and would look at me while talking, not watch the road. Very scary. Another was picking up a hitcher from Hamilton who needed introducing to a shower. Otherwise hitching is still pretty fine here. As pmcke said though, they are a pretty sad looking bunch these days, I still stop for the tidy ones.

Great. Now you're going to have me thinking any Honda Civics pulling over to give me a lift will have a homosexual scotsman in it.

ive picked up heaps of hitch hikers over the years, my advice has always been as follows: stick to main roots, easier to get get a ride, state and to a point provincial highways. and make sure your pack is in sight, ive always been wary of picking ppl without packs were if i do see them i know they are travellers blah blah blah. but it sounds like your trying to get out to the trails, good luck, i reckon you mite get stuck out in the ass end of no where, lol. i do remember talking to one fella who got stuck out in tarras for a day! your best bet would be to jump on here nearer to the time, im sure someone will be willing to drop you off and pick you up again. ive seen it done a few times here and there, hell they mite even pop along with you. we're pretty friendly bunch. oh watch out for those honda civics! lol.

From what I've heard, most people strike it lucky with getting rides to road ends (trail heads). I got a ride all the way into Rolling Junction to do the Wangapeka once but I had to walk out all the way to the road at the other end. However I think trying to jack a ride up on this site is good advice. Good luck.

I haven't done much hitch hiking in the last few years, but reckon it's pretty reasonable for getting to some good tramps; so long as you plan them right. A good eg would be Harper Pass; goes between two main highways (Arthur's Pass and Lewis Pass roads) and takes 4-5 days, depending on how many hotpools you stop off at I suppose... If you end up on the Lewis side, there are a some good pools and a camping area very close to the Lewis Pass Rd. But yeah; that's the trick, suss out whether the closest road is a back road or a main route, in the past I've walked 4 hours down tar seal to get to a main road, which is no where near as satisfying as 4 hrs on a trail. And like people say; try to look tidy, if it's raining wear a coat and take it off before you sit down on the dry seat, etc etc. Pick a good spot where the drivers can see you, and can see somewhere good to pull over out of the traffic. I personally think it's best to have a spot where drivers have time to see you and make a quick decision that you look ok, rather than think too much about it. The hardest thing if you've been stuck somewhere for 2 hours can be to stay perky - that dark cloud over your head can be spotted a mile off. Have a few tunes to get stuck in your head, think good thoughts, whatever. I kinda avoid the ipod etc, because I figure that they'll make me look like I'm in a little bubble and not really trying to get a ride, but maybe I think about it a little too much... Anyhow, a good PJ Harvey song going around my head can last me half an hour at least, if I listened to it 10 times in a row it wouldn't be quite the same... I also find a slight difference in North Island vs South Island hitching; NI has more cars but a lower incidence of rides, SI the other way around. Seems to balance out. Watch out for Blenheim, it's notorious for getting stuck, or at least seeming that way - a lot of the traffic at small towns is people going short distances Good luck!

I was rather lucky on my recent trip to NZS. The major rides included: - a lift from/and to The Divide - a ride from the roadend to Te Anau after completing Hollyford Track. - a jetboat back to Makarora, then a ride to Wanaka to catch up with the last shuttle to ChCh. I'm also reminded of freshly-cooked seafood shared with a couple I met at Lake Alabaster on The Hollyford Tk and with a few members of a North Island based tramping group on the last day of the year. Happy New Year Everyone!