Hitchin back down south

Looks like everyone is heading out of town for the school holidays here, so not much point hanging about any further either. Time to get some experience flying in some other spots. Kuen is off with the family down to Fox Glacier, and Stew is taking his family off to Mt Hutt (skifield near Christchurch) Stew says "I'll give you ride down there", so I start making plans to find a place to stay at the busy ski fields. I give George a call at the Methven YHA and he says "all full, but don't worry we'll find a place for you somehow". Sensational, but moments later Stew says, someone else in the family who wasn't going to go has decided to hold their seat open. ok.. Intercity is going for a premium for the next few days and requires two legs to get south and I can't find a freebie hire car (relocate a hire car) from Nelson, but apparently there's one in Christchurch that needs to be taken to Queenstown. Plan B.. Hitch.

Stew drops me off near his place in Richmond (just west of Nelson), and says if you wait here, you'll get a ride to Christchurch, but if I've still got the spare seat and you're still waiting I'll pick you up. Buzz me if you get a ride. In minutes, a truck pulls on over. Jason says, throw your kit in the back, I'm heading to Christchurch. Wow! Jason is on this job for the 2nd day on this truck, and recons he's been conned - apparently next week he'll be looking for another route to drive. He's doing a triangular run from Christchurch -> Blenhiem -> Nelson - Christchurch which starts at 3am and finishes at 5pm. It's quite a nice truck, he's dropped off the load in Nelson so he's running with nothing now, which is great for negotiating the Lewis Pass (lots of sheer drops down to nowhere - and fully closed to traffic a few days ago due to snow). As we head out of the pass, we see a road train that didn't negotiate a corner very well and went straight where he should've went nicely around the bend. Lucky he did it here on the flats rather than a bit futher up around the pass where there is no second chances, and very often without any barriers. In fact as Jason points out a barrier which is now hanging off into the gorge below.. "one went off there last week - can't even see where it ended up down the bottom"

A few hours into the trip Jason is on the phone after he realises that my call to the hire car company falls flat (no relocate car to take). Says one of his mates does the Christchurch run to Wanaka tonight, so I'll see if he can take you on from where I drop you off.. wow he's a travel agant too. We get into Christchurch at 5pm, but unfortunately the timing wasn't quite right so I'll have to make my own way. He drops me off in Christchurch where Highway 1 heads south, and says, you'll have no problem from here. I grab a quick bite and head back onto the road. It's peak hour traffic, and I'm focussing mostly on trucks as I figure who else will be driving out of town as far away as Queenstown/Wanaka. I'm wrong, I'm looking far down the dark highway trying to see if a long haul truck is coming when a car pulls over that I didn't even notice. It turns out Kim is heading down to Oamaru (on the coast at about the same lattitude as Wanaka), and she's keen to have some company to keep her awake. She's a physio student who is burning the candle at both ends. Studying, working, and visiting friends from Christchurch, Dunedin and home in Oamaru. She says, "whenever I see hitchhikers my car is too full of stuff and I can't pick anyone up, or my car is empty and I never see any", but tonight...

Nice one, well I'm happy her stars lined up, because this takes me a long way down south. As we get close to our destination, the traffic really thins out, and she says, it doesn't look like you'll get another ride from here, and even the cafe where the trucks stop in Oamaru is closed. "How about you stay at my place?" Nice! On the way she notifies one of her friends that she's picked up a hitch hiker so if she goes missing everyone will know why! The comments back and forth were probably fairly obvious, but none so obvious as the one where she says, "and he's staying at my place tonight"... "He's what?!"

Kim drops me back up the other end of town. She reckons my best bet is to go South to Palmerston and head back to Queenstown that way, but I decide to go the other way (back north a few kms to get another highway that goes much closer to Wanaka). I check with the cafe owner which way she reckons is the best, and we get an overwhelming vote in the go back north a few kms, and next she proceeds to ask everyone coming in if they could drop me back at the last highway turnoff (the travel agents are really good around here heh?). I'm up at the turnoff, and I've even got a sign with "Wanaka" on it. I wait about 15min for a dairy farmer who lived in Perth for 5 years picks me up and takes me just a short way down the road. This bit wasn't one of the better efforts. This highway is really thin with traffic, but getting a fair bit up this road has sorted the local traffic from the ones that are going some distance. What little traffic there is, is filled with mums and dads and kids. It's looking so bad, I actually start walking the 200km trip. I get a few kms down the track and Bruce & Joyce are out for a cruisy drive down to Mt Cook (locals from Oamaru). Phew, this was one leg that wasn't looking good, so I'm saved, and drop me off at the T-junction at Omarama about 100km away, along with a quick sight seeing tour and history of all the hydro stations around here.

Time for a quick lunch break... fortunately this spot is hub of activity with the road from Wanaka to Mt Cook with at least a few cars cruising every minute. I wait here for about 30min before a truckie at the service station about 100m away notices my sign, and waves me on over. Pug (Steve) is going directly to Wanaka. He's on a good wicket when it comes to driving trucks. This is the latest and greatest.. super quiet, comfy, and he adds "first one in the country this one".. "it's got an engine that's so advanced you could breathe the air out of the exhaust pipe". No long hours here, no pressure to get anywhere quick (couldn't if he wanted too - the speedo wont let him go over 90k), and you can really tell by the way he drives it - super smooth and slow through the Lindis Pass. Boss owns a company that has practically no competition and he carts the goods, and in his spare time hangs off the ledge of helicopters shooting deer in and around Wanaka to Haast. He drops me off at the door of Matterhorn Backpackers.. I've got to say.. the service around here is sensational!

All in all I've waited longer for a scheduled bus than I waited to get a ride by standing on the side of the road, and I got there a lot quicker than any bus service!