Hitchhiking

Generally in the US when we think of hitchhiking we think of horror movies and of people getting chopped into little pieces. In New Zealand, however, hitchhiking is simply another popular mode of transportation. I wouldn’t be more surprised if someone told me they were hitchhiking somewhere versus taking a bus or car. In fact, some people here in Queenstown will literally hitchhike to and from work everyday.

I personally have only tested it out a few times. My first time my friend Tara and hitched to a gym 15 minutes drive from Queenstown. We were a little sketched about the situation; again due to the rather negative impression we have about hitchhiking in the US. However, our friends reassured us that we would get picked up in literally one minute, so we had to test it out. And what do you know, as soon as we stick our arms out the first car that drives by picks us up. And it’s even a girl who happens to be going to the exact same place as us. Super nice, offers us a ride home after we are all done at the gym.

Another one of my hitching situations involved a 40 minute ride from the middle of nowhere to the little town called Oamaru. Normally it’s difficult to hitch with four people, as often there might not be four open seats in one’s car, especially in the middle of nowhere. However three friends and I waited only ten minutes until a guy with a van drove by and picked us all up. Really nice guy. Find out he’s a butcher, the profession any hitcher would hope for from their driver. Oh hitching, only in New Zealand.