While waiting around in the hostel for about a week trying to sell the van, I got to know quite a few of the other guests and their travel plans. As my Canadian friends, David and Tabitha, were set to leave, I decided that I'd give them a ride outside of town, since hitchhiking from the middle of a large city isn't always the easiest thing to do. Apparently word spread around the hostel about our little trip, and a few others wanted to be a part of the group. First, there was Barbara, a loud German girl who had moved down to NZ in search of a job in some sort of IT role. She had an interview on the South side of town, about 25 minutes from our hostel, and her repeated attempts to buy a car kept falling through, so she was without a car the day before the interview, so we decided that we'd be heading in that general direction anyway, so she joined the crew. Then, Andrea and Nicolas, two Ecuadorian-Americans from Miami with whom I had spoken (and advised not to take the Kiwi Experience bus) were leaving for the airport that day, which also happens to be South of the city. So, despite Willy's seating deficiencies, we all piled in. We had Barbara, Tabitha and me crammed in the front bench seat, with David, Nicolas and Andrea all on the floor or sitting on the bed and the stacks of backpacks in the back. I could immediately tell the difference in the weight of the van, as Willy struggled up the first hill. Soon, we were on the highway, heading South towards Barbara's interview, with her giving me just a half second warning before each intended turn, so that was a bit of an adventure with a heavy, large van and not all that much visibility trying to make some last-second maneuvers through traffic, but we made it to her interview with 30 minutes to spare.
Our next stop was the airport. We had some directions and I knew the general area, so we wound our way around until finding some signs and arriving in less than 20 minutes. I was excited to see a street corner featuring a Burger King and a gas station. Yes, I may sometimes get excited about fast food, but that wasn't the reason. I had seen a news story on that exact location the night before on the news. Apparently a group of gang members work on that corner, washing peoples' windshields and basically forcing them to pay for it and else damaging their cars. I saw the same guys on the corner that I had seen on the news, so I told everyone the story and was glad that they didn't run out and wash my windows. Following the excitement and new-found room in the van after stopping at the airport, David ran in to get us all ice cream cones, and then we headed a bit South. We tried to find the way back to the freeway, but a few one way roads and no access zones thwarted us. As a result, we took a not-so-scenic detour through one of the lower income Maori neighborhoods of the city, a truly authentic Auckland experience, off the main tourist track, so Tabitha and David appreciated the sights. I eventually found a nice wide spot on the side of the highway that we agreed seemed like a nice place to find a ride and bid farewell to my new Canadian friends that kept me company and kept me entertained the past few days. I turned around at the next exit, finding myself actually 35 kms South of Auckland, and that was the end of the story for me.
As it turns out, though, that was just the start for David and Tabitha. Just a few minutes after dropping them off, a police office came flying by and screeched to a stop just after passing them. Hoping to not be fined for the offense, they approached the vehicle and indeed were illegally hitchhiking on a motorway, but the nice cop actually gave them a ride about 45 minutes further South, so it worked out well for them. Later on, they were picked up by a woman who said that she had heard about them on the news, so apparently they became celebrities on the traffic radio station or something like that, so she was actually excited to be picking them up. Who knew that I'd be aiding and abetting such hardened criminals? I thought I was just helping out some friendly Canucks. Later on, they tried their luck by amusing motorists with Tabitha riding piggy-back, which seemed to make people smile but didn't help their luck all that much with rides. They eventually did make it safely down to their destination near New Plymouth after a few more short rides and a final pickup from his grandmother. Unfortunately, with David and Tabitha gone, as they said, the golden area at Lantana Lodge was over. I was left amusing myself with a British volunteer working with local sports teams and a penchant for short shorts, a young, partying Canadian spreading rumours about America (how easy it is to get guns there, drugs, etc) - he was nicknamed Oh Canada, and another few annoying Brits that hogged my precious computer.
Good times...
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