Kiwi Hitchhiking 101

Hi everyone!
I've escaped once again from the beautiful rugged mountains of New Zealand for my weekly clean up ritual. This week I completed the Kepler and Dusky Tracks, both in Fiordland National Park and both incredible in their own rights. For its part, the Dusky Track was all around one of the most challenging hikes in my life -- I've never seen anything quite like it. I'll write more about it later, but suffice it to say I think I really need a nice long break from tramping!! I will also just note that I got to the start on Dusky Sound via a helicopter ride to Supper Cove (wow!) and finished with a ferry ride across Lake Manapouri.

My main topic of this blog, however, is hitchhiking in New Zealand! It's funny how many times people have recommended this to me when I mentioned that I needed to get from point A to B. They kept telling me how everyone is willing to give you a ride, so I tried to hitchhike a couple of times my first week here, to no avail. I learned then, however, that they have funny hand signals when they drive by you to indicate why they can't stop (as if they feel guilty for not stopping). They have signs indicating "No room in my car", "I'm just going around the corner", or "I don't care to stop!". Hilarious!

Then the last week I did end up getting a couple of rides:
* One from a fellow tramper from USA going 3 hrs back into town
* One from a nice gentleman going 20 minutes between towns
* One from a young man driving home for a long Easter weekend. This was last night, when I was too late to take a bus back into Queenstown from Te Anau (having just completed the Dusky Track). He picked me up minutes after I started trying -- he said he could take me part way to Queenstown. I ended up deciding to go with him all the way to Invercargill and see what there is going on there. This last week I really have no detailed plans, just lots of ideas, having completed the main things I wanted to do in New Zealand. So I'm here in Invercargill this weekend, at the bottom tip of the South Island. I stayed at a hostel here last night, and today went to church at the southernmost LDS chapel in the world! Wow! The members are so friendly that I received an offer to stay at someone's place tonight on Easter Sunday. Very fun!

I'm looking forward to meeting up with five friends from home in Sydney in one week!
Love to all,
Ray