Hitching to Hamilton


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Oceania » New Zealand » North Island » Hamilton
July 10th 2015
Published: July 10th 2015
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I had no interest in Hamilton - it just seemed like the longest I could realistically hitch a ride in a day.

Lots of foreigners here rent cars. Anyone who thinks that my hitchhiking is more dangerous than my renting a car and driving on the left side of the road doesn't know me very well.

I asked the manager at the hostel for a piece of cardboard and a marker and wrote Auckland on one side and Hamilton on the other. I then walked toward the end of town and stood there with my bags, coffee and sign. Within two minutes a family from the South Island stopped and offered me a ride. The parents had their five kids and her mother with them, so it was pretty interesting to hear about their lives on their sheep farm. They took me about four hours to the Auckland airport.

From there I walked toward route 20, which leads to route 1 again. I didn't think I'd get picked up in front of a shopping center, but 2 minutes later a jolly Maori trucker with a raucous laugh pulled over and I climbed up. He took me to Bombay, where I ate some tuna and crackers just in time before an older woman who is a funeral director took me to Pokeno, where they are known for lots of bacon and big ice creams, neither of which interested me much. Three Kiwis with 7 Asian kids picked me up in another van there (I told them they could nearly field a soccer team, but they just said they were one big family so I didn't push the questions) and dropped me off about 20 km outside Hamilton, where I was picked up by an older man originally from Northern Ireland who competes in strongman weightlifting competitions and really thinks Bobby Jindal and Ted Cruz and Marco Rubio are great.

He got me to the Hamilton city center just before sunset.

Hamilton isn't very interesting and I'm surprised there are even three subpar hostels here (I visited all three). They're all located in a dingy area of concrete, big box stores, and people staggering around. When I walked the next day across the city and back to route 1, I found the town center, the river walk, and the university to be much better, and they had a few interesting coffee and counter-culture shops.

On to Rotorua in the morning.

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