Hitchhiking in New-Zealand

Anna and me met in Malaysia, last February, in an oyster farm. Anna is from Finland and I come from France. At this time we didn't expect that a bit less than one year later we will be travelling together on the roads of New-Zealand. First we wanted to make a more specific plan, but finally we didn't t have time to make any plans and we just left with the willingness to reach the south island where we've never been before and explore the country.

This article is about some aspects of our travel, what have made the travel easier and what we've done until now...:
Hitch-hiking
Accommodation
Hiking and other places
Two special adventure we had
Useful app and websites

Hitch-hiking
The good thing about not having any plans, is that you are never in a rush to go anywhere ! Both of us did already hitch-hiking before but not much. It was quite exciting and also a bit challenging to think about doing that. After 22 days travelling, I can say it was an excellent decision and not only because it's cheap !

• We always have a quick ride: we generally wait less than 10mn to get a ride. Only once we had to wait about an hour.
• So far, we didn't use a sign because it was not really necessary.
• We didn't have any troubles, we always felt safe and never felt in danger expect one day, we had 3 different rides with 3 different Indian guys and the three of them were hoping that we will sleep with them at one point. We taught that there is something wrong with Indian guys, not all of them of course but it was not the first time we experienced that...
• We saved a lot of money. Travelling in NZ can be really expensive, doesn't matter if you travel by bus, train, ferry or car.
• A lot of people that gave us a ride went further than where they were going, just to help us.
• We met people from NZ, Australia, Argentina, Germany, Brazil, Holland, England, France, Islanders … We were especially happy to meet local people because while working in Auckland we met mostly foreigners and we found it was hard to meet Kiwis and Maoris.

Accommodation
Lodging in NZ can be very expensive (25 dollars per night in a guesthouse, between 18 to 50 in camping) and we think it's not worth it to spend money in that, when we have a tent. Usually there is an easy access to public toilets (in NZ they are super clean!) and public showers on the beachs. Until now, we found a good balance between wild camping (5 nights), camping (2 night), Couchsurfing (4 nights in 2 different places), WOOFing (5 nights), guesthouse (2 nights). So far, we've spent 70$ in total for accomodation.

To find our wild camping spot we look on the map where there are some tracks. By the track it's easy to find a clear spot for pitching a tent and there will be no people at night. Another way if you are hitch-hiking is to ask the drivers to stop whenever you see a good empty field where you can hide from the people.
We did WOOFing in a house, where we had to do some weeding in the garden and in exchange we got food and accommodation.

One of our wild camping spot

The view from our wild camping spot

Hiking and other places
So far we did two big walks : the Tongariro Alpine Crossing and the Abel Tasman Great Walk

Tongariro Alpine Crossing

Famous for being one of the best day walk in the world, we couldn't resist it even if we had to pay for the camping and the bus shuttle to do the hike. It's a 7 hours walk with some very steep parts but we managed to do it in 5 hours without rushing too much. On this trek you see wonderful landscapes, of course you are not alone on the track as many people have the same idea...

Abel Tasman Great Walk

A 3-5 days very famous walk in NZ where you walk from one wonderful beach to another ! We were 4 of us and did it in 4 days. It's a easy walk with very little steep parts, so it's suitable for everybody. We were there just before the school holidays so it was already starting to be a bit crowded, but just “NZ crowded” (which doesn't mean many people) so it was totally bearable. The first night we slept in the bush and the two following ones on a beach. On the beach we were a bit worried about the tide but we had no problem in the end. We saw a lot of weka, a typical bird from NZ that look a little bit like a prehistoric bird, and we saw some seals taking sunbaths and swimming happily.

We really liked The Coromandel peninsula with beautiful beaches and forests, the Cathedral Cove and some chill towns, the Huka falls close to Taupo and the area around Nelson in the South Island where you can find plenty of walks and beaches.

Coromandel peninsula

Shalley beach

Walk to the Cathedral Cove

The Cathedral Cove

Two special adventures we had
The first one was when we had a ride with these three young Maori guys who looked a bit scary at the first sght. We talked with them while an hour ride to reach Taupo's lake where they dropped us on the side in a place where we could plant the tent. We proposed them to join us to spend sometime together and -we were surprised- they came back with a lot of bourbon-cola cans. It was the first time we really spent time with Maoris. We found it very hard to follow their accent added with a lot of slang words. They invited us to a night-bush-ride on a hunting tracks which was a bit scary -as the driver didn't always seem to know what he was doing- but even tough, we had a lot of fun. When they brought us back Anna realised she lost her sleeping bag and one of them offered us to sleep on his couch. We accepted the offer and it was a really unexpected adventure to end up sleeping in this messy living room full of kid's toys, food, a huge TV screen and a Christmas tree.

The second was the time we spend with this 60 years old half Maori-half Scottish man who picked us for a 4 hours ride from Tongariro to Wellington. After two or three hours drive, we told him to let us on the side of the road anywhere we could do wild camping but we told us that he felt responsible of us, that now we were friends and that he will pay us the night in he Motel where he was going (and we would have our own room). He was very friendly, we felt safe and told him that if he was happy to invite us then we will happily accept the proposal as we were really dreaming of a shower after the Tongariro hike we did. We had a comfy bedroom, a nice indian meal in the restaurant nearby and a good sleep. The day after we helped him all day with his job delivering art in the richest flats in Wellington ! His job is to drive from Auckland to Wellington to deliver some paints, sculptures and other art pieces to some places and people. It was a really nice experience we will probably remember a long time.

Useful apps and websites
WOOFing-Work Away- HelpX
With these 3 websites you can find projects all around the world that need volunteers. The idea behind all these 3 platforms is in general 4-5 hours of work a day and you get free food and accommodation. From the WOOFing website you can find mainly farming jobs. Helpx and workaway both have a wider selection of different types of jobs. It is great way of earning new skills, to meet people, to help and make travelling cheaper.

Couchsurfing
Couchsurfing is a online platform where you can find a host in the places you want to visit. You create your profile as a guest or a host and then you can either find people who can host you or you can offer people to crash in your place. It's an awesome concept that allows us to meet local people and stay in a place for free.

Hitch-wiki
Hitchwiki is a free collaborative guide for hitchhikers ! There are many different information : where to hitchhike, safety tips, testimonies, strategies,...

Wikitravel
Wikitravel is a collaborative travel guide online. There you can find a lot of information about travelling, about countries and cities, where to sleep, to eat, what to do, etc.

Maps.me
Maps.me is an offline map app you can download for free ! You must predownload the map of the area you want to explore and it shows you where you are even if you're not online ! There are plenty of good information (toilets, water, shops, bars, viewpoints, tracks,...) and you can also participate and add things on the maps.

Thanks for reading !!!
Margot and Anna