Day 53: Hitchhiking with a Japanese Family

When I say hitchhiking, I mean I was walking down the road when a Japanese family was kind enough to pick me up.

The day started like any other, I checked out of my hostel in Rotorua, and boarded a bus to Waitomo. What made it different was that this bus was very early, so I arrived at my Waitomo hostel around 10am.

This hostel is very remote. Waitomo is a very small town as it is, and this hostel is about eight kilometers from the nearest group of buildings. It was a last minute booking, I couldn't find anything closer.

But this hostel is great, it's laid out much like a one story house. There's a room with couches and TV, a kitchen, and a hallway that leads to the bedrooms.

What really caught my eye was that the kitchen/dining area had a dartboard. This reminded me that I have the great ability to entertain myself for hours with the smallest things. I could have thrown darts at that board for hours, but I didn't.

The same guy who had checked me into the hostel (I think his name is Paul) was around cleaning out the other rooms. Since I was in the middle of nowhere with nothing to do until tomorrow, he offered to give me a ride into town. He was going there anyway.

I knew I could have stayed here all day and been entertained, but I took the opportunity. He told me about a hiking trail through the woods around the Waiting Caves (which I don't get to enter until tomorrow) that I could check out, so I did. But of course, we were a good distance from the hostel now, and Paul wasn't my personal valet. So he told me I might need to hitch back once I was done hiking. I laughed and thought I would probably just walk.

The trail was great, if only a little muddy. Today had been very sunny but of course almost every other day in New Zealand had at least some rain.

The path followed a fast moving river that seemed to be actively carving away the landscape. There were several portions of the river bank that had recently collapsed. At one point there was a full grown tree that had once stood on the edge of the river but had now fallen into it.

I kept running into mud puddles that became more and more difficult to pass, until I came to one that I could not pass, and I was forced to turn around.

I got back to the small clump of buildings where I had been dropped off earlier. I bought some pasta from the general store since it didn't seem like I had many other options for dinner.

I then began walking.

Pretty soon I came to some road construction. Can't even escape it out in the middle of nowhere. This was where things got complicated. I walked around the construction as best I could, keeping to the sides. But it came to a point where I wasn't sure if it would be safe to keep going. I stopped at a cave adventure / cafe on the side of the road to try to figure out what to do. I thought of calling a taxi or using uber, but I didn't want to spend the money. And I didn't have good internet connection, so I guess that's part of it too.

After contemplating for some time I realized it was going to be dark in a few hours, and I needed to start moving. I asked one of the construction workers if it would be safe to keep walking. He suggest I ask in the cafe if anyone else was going that way. I couldn't bring myself to approach a stranger and ask for a ride, so I started walking.

About fifteen minutes later a car pulls over ahead of me. An older Japanese couple and a younger couple (just guessing here, the younger couple could have been brother and sister for all I know) invited me into their car. They said they were going the same direction and one of the construction workers had told them about me. I chalk one up for the construction worker.

I sat in the back middle seat and I learned what they had hoped of me. The young man in the passenger seat asked me if there was a gas station up ahead. I guess I managed to look like a local, chalk that up as another success. I apologized and told them that this was my first day here so I didn't know.

They kept driving and talked to each other in Japanese. My hostel was only about five minutes from where they had picked me up (but would have been nearly an hour if I had walked). I pointed out the building and they were gracious enough to pull over and let me out. I thanked them many times before they drove off.

That was not something I expected to experience today. But I'm glad it happened. Instead of writing this right now, I'd still be walking if not for the kindness of those strangers.

Tonight I'm going to cook some pasta, sit on a couch, and watch this hostel's DVD copy of the final Lord of the Rings. Gotta complete the trilogy. They also have Fargo, which I might watch tomorrow night.

Speaking of tomorrow, that's when I'll finally enter the famous Glowworm Caves of Waitomo. I'll try to catch some in a jar to bring home.

Thanks for reading and here's to tomorrow.

P.S. This will probably only make sense if you're from my generation: do you remember that Rocket Power special where they all went to New Zealand for a sports competition? I've been having flashbacks to that lately. I remember there was a scene where they went through caves and saw glow worms.