Hitch hiking north

Wanting to be sure I had a room for the night, after eating a quiet breakfast by the lake, I made my way to a hostel; checking in before most checked out. After doing so, the first thing I did was take a shower; a great feeling after sleeping outside the night before. In order to inform you all of my where abouts the previous night, I walked the town looking for internet. No free internet was to be found so I caved and paid for internet for the first time since being in NZ. I then took 4.5 minutes to walk through the Gypsy fair that was going on in town. The rest of my day was uneventful, going to bed early. After sleeping on tree roots the night before, sleeping in a real bed, not just a foam mattress, was oh so sweet. It makes me appreciate having a bed so much more.

After a tremendous slumber, I woke up Monday morning with plans of booking another night in the hostel. They were full. I would have to find another hostel. Down the street I went, stopping at the Matterhorn Hostel. To my delight, there was room in the inn. After discarding my belongings, I headed out once again. I went out with the intentions of hiking up a mountain. The mountain was not to be hiked. I began walking along Lake Wanaka. Surrounded by beauty, rather than hike the mountain, I decided to continue along the lake for the next 3 hours until I arrived at Damper Bay. No one was in sight so I sat and enjoyed the peace and quiet for a bit before beginning my journey back. On my return trip, it became evident that it was dinner time for the rabbit community. Over the span of 20 minutes, there were 64+ rabbits. Yes, I counted! When I arrived in town I sat by the lake for a short amount of time, watching the sunset. The moment was short lived when six teenage girls arrived taking pictures, talking loudly, and giggling. Noodles and a can of corn was my dinner for the night. Sitting at the table eating, there were 7 other Americans, two of which were from Minnesota. This was the most Americans I have collectively seen since I’ve been here. After chatting for a while, I called it a night.

Yesterday morning, I woke up in Wanaka, not knowing if I would be able to catch the bus to Franz Josef that same morning, I walked down to the information center just after it opened. I went ahead and booked the bus as well as a hostel in Franz Josef. I had learned from my mistake. I collected my belongings from the hostel and returned to wait for the bus which was to leave at 9:45. Taking the best seat in the house, the front seat, I settled in for the long ride. After an hour of driving, we made our first pit stop at a small café in the middle of no where. Making my way off the bus, I spotted a familiar face. We looked at each other, each of a trying to place where we had met. Then he called, “Minnesota” and I returned, “Fergberger, St.Louis.” I then learned that his name was Ben. We talked while we waited for our bus to continue. Making a few stops along the way, we arrived in Franz Josef at 4:30pm. I disposed of my pack at Château Franz and then inquired about busses out of town the next morning. Since I have seen glaciers before, I didn’t have a strong inclination to see the glacier; it was more of a pit stop than anything else, and because the glacier hikes (other than the heli hike) were canceled due to storm damage making hikes unsafe, I was released from my touristy obligation to hike on the glacier. The cheapest bus north to Nelson was $76; reasonable but still a bit spendy. Knowing that there would be people headed north, I wasn’t too keen on paying for a bus. I think you can all guess what I was thinking. I took a short stroll before darkness set in and I made my way back to the hostel. It wasn’t just darkness that brought me back to the hostel. The sandflies are also to blame. My blood was making for a good dinner and although I’m all for donating blood, it was not to sandflies that I wanted to give my blood. After dinner, a fire alarm, and a philosophical conversation it was time to call it a night.

Possibly the coolest slide ever.
Did I go down it? You bet!

You know you're in New Zealand when...

Franz Josef Glacier is somewhere back there

Being in Queenstown for quite some time, I had collected a fair amount of food and I have been in the process of eating the food I have rather than buying food so my meals over the past two days have mostly consisted of apples with peanut butter, muesli bars, and toast with boysenberry jam or nutella. After showering and eating my breakfast, I once again got my stuff together and headed out the door. I walked the full 3 minutes to the only road going out of town arriving at 8:35am. I crossed to the northbound side of the road and waited ever so patiently in hopes of getting a ride. Here is the thing about hitching a ride out of a small town; in some way, your chances of getting picked up are greater because the smallness brings a friendly down to earth feel to it which I think makes picking up a hitch hiker less intimidating, yet at the same time because it is so small, it makes hitching more difficult because there is far less traffic. I wasn’t the only one looking for a ride out of town; two others placed themselves a few meters further down the road. During a 45 minute period of time, a total of 10 cars passed by. Although this was a significant chunk of time, it wasn’t nearly as frustrating as when I was trying to hitch out of Queenstown and plenty of cars were passing by. Finally, an hour and a half later, a car came to a rolling stop. My first ride for the day was with Alistair, Ellie, and Gracie; what I assume to be a dad with his two daughters. My ride with them was unlike any other rides I have gotten; conversation was quite minimal. For those who know me, you know that I can be perfectly content just sitting and that I don’t need conversation to keep me entertained, but when I’m in a strangers car for a significant amount of time, it seems quite strange not to talk. We had been driving for just under two hours when we stopped in Ross, a small town. They were meeting up with someone they knew there. My options were to either continue hitching or wait until they were finished. I went with the later. While they did their thing, I read. As I sat alongside the road waiting, a car passed carrying one of the other guys that was hitching out of Franz Josef. After waiting a bit over an hour, we went on our way towards Greymouth arriving around 2. Because it was still relatively early in the afternoon, I figured I would continue trying to make it north to Nelson and that if I didn’t get a ride within an hour I would stay put because unless someone was going all the way to Nelson, just over 3 hours away, I would be stuck in the middle of no where. They were kind enough to drop me off on the north end of town which would make hitching easier. I stood outside a gas station and in 10 minutes, a guy by the name of Craig with a truck and trailer picked me up. Probably being in his early to mid-40s, clad in mid-thigh length camouflage shorts, he was an interesting fellow. Going only 20km up the road, my ride with him was short. Had it been longer, I think we would have had a great conversation. In the time we had, he told me a bit of his story before he talked about wanting to hike the Appalachian Trail. He proceeded to ask me if I had heard of Bill Bryson, a man who has hiked the Trail. I had not, to which he seemed astounded. He then proceeded to pull one of Bill’s books out of the backseat and give it to me; a read I look forward to. I don’t know if you have picked up on it yet, but I have a new fondness for semicolons. I probably shouldn’t have mentioned that because now that I have you are going to notice it and there will probably be times that I use a semicolon improperly. Don’t judge me. Anyways, moving on. Craig dropped me off 20km out of Greymouth and approximately 8 minutes later, a sweet old lady by the name of Margaret picked me up. Again, she was only going about 20km up the road. I’ll take what I can get. The stopping point was in the middle of nowhere with traffic few and far between. Thinking it may be a while, I pulled out a book, regularly looking up to see if a car was coming. I hadn’t even read a full page before I heard the sound of a car backing up. Someone was coming back for me. Upon opening the door and asking where the gentleman was going, I was relieved to hear he was going all the way to Nelson. My fourth escort of the day was Trevor (whose name I didn’t learn until the end of the ride), a middle aged man dressed in slacks and a dress shirt who was making his way home after visiting schools in the south that he oversees the maintenance of. Nelson was a good 3 hours away in which we talked 95% of the time with most of our conversation being about traveling, culture, and New Zealand. I now know how to tell the difference between a fence for sheep and one for beef. You learn something new everyday. Arriving in Nelson around 6:30, the sun had gone down. Trevor was kind enough to take me into the town center where I found the local McDonalds. Having not eaten much all day, putting hot food in my belly felt great. While it wouldn’t be my first choice in food, I went there in order to get free wifi, which if you haven’t noticed already, is hard to come by in NZ. I then made my way to the closest hostel to secure a room for the night. $30 was the asking price at the YHA. One street over it was $20. I discarded my things before going back to McD’s hoping to upload pictures to a previous blog. The battery on my computer was running low so I was unable to finish what I was doing and made my way back to the hostel. I sat in the lounge, working on the blog before going to bed.