The journey continues...

Hello there,

I’m currently sitting outside on a beautiful summer day in New Zealand. The weather is looking up for the next couple of weeks so I’m really happy about that. We have left the Somerville Farm to continue our adventure. Jodie and Scott were great host’s and I was really happy to get the true Kiwi family experience. Something that I hope to never forget because they were the host’s that I stayed with the longest. Although Jodie and I would seldom get in arguments about Netball versus basketball I guess she was alright :)

Jodie dropped Nolan and I off in Dannevirke, which is in the South East of the North Island. We needed to go to the North East and we figured that our journey was about a 400 K hitchhiking trip. It would be our second longest next to the trip we did from Queenstown to Greymouth about a month and a half back. It took us about twenty minutes but we got our first ride. It was two girls who were in there late 20’s that didn’t really say much. I have to admit it was one of the more awkward hitching experiences that we have encountered. They just played their music really loud and smoked their cigarettes haha! They dropped us in a town called Hasting, which is twenty to fifteen minutes from the next town we wanted to hitch out of called Napier. An older Kiwi man pulled over in a really nice red ford car. The only reason I mention that the Ford was nice is because all the other cars that we have been picked up in are generally not as nice. When a nice shiny care drives by Nolan and I usually look at each other and say, “Nope not that one”. This guy was the first! He was a golfer and retired. He actually brought us to a great place to hitch from that was leading right out of Napier to the next town we planned to hitch to, which was Taupo. We waited and waited and we were having no luck at all. We were getting a bit discouraged at this point. I decided to stand up…practically on the white line and put both of my hands over my head with my thumbs up. I realized that I may have looked quite foolish but I didn’t care at that point I just wanted to get a ride it was bloody hot outside! Suddenly I saw a gold little Nissan cruise around the corner and it came really close to the white line and I thought it was going to hit me. It didn’t, it just kept on keeping on and drove away. I turned to Nolan and said, “Jesus Christ that old Bastard almost hit me”! Within ten seconds that same guy turned his car around and pulled up next to me. He rolled down his window and said, “What did you just say when I drove past you”? I was confused so I mumbled back to him. “I just said that I thought you were going to hit me”. The man rolled down the window more and looked me in the eyes. “Bullshit kid do you want a ride or not? Get in”! I was really confused but I still opted to take the ride. As soon as we got in the car he said, “Jeez I wish I could have driven a little closer to the white line and hit you dam yanks”. Then I finally realized that he was being completely sarcastic and he was just messing with us. He introduced himself as Ron. He was 84 years old and was a dairy farmer all his life until the age of 57 when he retired. He was one of the most sarcastic and witty old bustards I’ve ever met in my life! He was going to originally take us to Taupo but he seemed to enjoy our company so we kept going. We drove for a total of about four hours. We stopped off at his daughter’s house for a cup of tea and that was quite pleasant. It was late so Ron offered us a place to stay at his house. We accepted the offer. Beats the hell out of paying 25 dollars for a night in a hostel. We got to Ron’s house and he cooked us a meal and made us sign his visitor’s book. He was very well traveled and he sailed a lot around the world. He was just a very interesting man with lots of stories to tell. We spent the night in a traveling bus that he had outside of his house. It was comfortable and spacious!

In the morning I woke up relatively early and took a walk on the beach and watched the boats leave the harbor. Writing in my journal and enjoying the morning sun I was so happy! When it was time to leave Ron took us around the town and showed us the surfing hot spots and the beautiful places that his town had to offer. Our time with Ron came to an end shortly after he showed us around his town. He dropped us on the road right out of town and we hitched from there. We only needed to hitch about 50 K’s to Thames, which was our next destination. We got picked up in about 15 minutes. He brought us 5 K’s outside of Thames where we got another short ride. Hitching is so easy! We phoned Drew and Christine and they told us that they would meet us in about an hour and a half so we had time to kill. We just hung out in a park and I continued writing.

Drew picked us up around three thirty. The lodge that we are staying at which is also their home is absolutely gorgeous! It an old Victorian style house. A Spanish Architect made it and it really has that feel to it. The property overlooks the water and sits on top of a hill. There are amazing sunsets like the one I just witnessed J I’m not to sure what we are going to be doing for work but I think some construction is going to be done. I’m thrilled with the opportunity because Drew and Christine seem really nice!

Cheers,

Jon