For the first time ever, I relied on hitchhiking as my primary mode of transport in a country and had some deep, thought-provoking, fun, annoying ;), weird, and wild conversations with my drivers. In heavily touristy countries like New Zealand, it can be hard to meet locals but I managed to meet 110 of them lol, primarily through hitching. And I chose this way of getting around because a lot of New Zealand is rural, which means it’s easier and safer to hitchhike and which also means that there’s very few (if any) buses connecting the small communities.
Top Photo: Tongariro Crossing
Destinations
North Island
Auckland: The country’s very spread-out largest city has lots of hills with views and is surrounded by turquoise water. Don’t miss the incredible beaches on its west shore!
Bay of Islands & Cape Reinga: A collection of very green islands in a heavily Maori area and the gorgeous northernmost tip of New Zealand that is a very sacred place for the Maori people
Tauranga & Mt. Maunganui: Beach towns with a solo mountain peak right on the water
Rotorua: The Yellowstone of New Zealand has lots of thermal wonders to explore, including some right in the city center.
Tongariro National Park: A huge (I mean huge!) mountain and an impressive volcano sit side by side in this park that hosts New Zealand’s best hike–the Tongariro Crossing.
Wellington: The country’s capital sits below verdant hills on a lovely harbor.
South Island
Kaikoura: A beach town that sits below dramatic mountains & is one of the best places in the world to swim with dolphins (quite ethically!).
Christchurch & Arthurs Pass: The South Island’s largest city was practically leveled by a 2011 earthquake and is still rebuilding, with some beautiful results. It sits below Arthurs Pass, a beautiful mountain route.
Mt. Cook & Lake Tekapo: New Zealand’s tallest mountain is surrounded by epic sky blue glacial lakes.
Dunedin & Catlins: Perhaps the most beautiful beaches I’ve ever seen surround this city in NZ’s SE corner.
Te Anau & Fiordland National Park: Epic hikes and some of the only fjords outside Norway abound in this remote region.
Queenstown & Wanaka: Lots of big lakes and mountains make for lots of scenery in these tourist towns.
Franz Josef & Fox Glacier: New Zealand’s most famous glaciers have sadly dramatically declined in size but are still worth a look-see.
Hokitika & Punakaiki: Cute beach towns/villages with free spots to view magical glow worms and a chance to see the epic Pancake Rocks.
Abel Tasman National Park: Some of the country’s most stunning beaches sit in this quiet corner of the North Island.
New Plymouth & Mt. Taranaki: A giant dramatic volcanic mountain is the highlight here…if the clouds clear enough for you to be able to see it 😛
Raglan: New Zealand’s most famous beach and surf town is cute as a button and has lovely gorges and waterfalls nearby.
Some Stats
- New Zealand, which is divided into two major islands, has only 5 million people (less than the San Francisco Bay Area) and is one of the least densely-populated countries in the world
- Despite its reputation as being a sheepherders’ land, 87% of Kiwis (a cooler way of saying “New Zealander”) live in urban areas–one of the highest rates in the world
- New Zealand lands very high in lots of global rankings:
- The #13 most developed country in the world by GDP
- The #2 least corrupt country in the world
- The #2 most free country in the world (for economic, political, media, etc. freedom)
- Nearly 1/3 of Kiwis are immigrants (it’s one of the highest nations in the world for this measure) and only 70% of Kiwis are white, with 17% of the population being Maori (indigenous–see below), 15% Asian, & 8% Pacific Islander (aka Pacifica)
- Many Pacifica women wear a flower in their hair in daily life–you’ll often see bus drivers and cashiers with one 🙂
- Due to its isolation and large land area (it’s bigger than N. Ireland, England, Scotland, & Wales combined), New Zealand is perhaps the largest biodiversity hot spot outside of the tropics, with 522 species here found nowhere else on Earth
- New Zealand is the strictest country on Earth when it comes to keeping invasive species out and they’re even undergoing an initiative to fully eliminate invasive species like possums & rats–traps are set up in forests & people are even getting paid to go out and kill them!
- The most famous Kiwi is Lorde, who I didn’t realize was a Kiwi until I researched the country 🙂
The Maori
New Zealand was the last country on Earth to be settled by humans! Like any humans, at all 🙂 New Zealand’s indigenous Maori people came from Polynesian islands in the 13th century, following migrating birds–it had never been reached by humans before then. (For comparison, Australia was settled 50,000 years ago and even Hawaii and Easter Island were settled 400 years sooner than New Zealand.)
The Maori make up 17% of New Zealand’s population (compare this to the 3-5% indigenous populations of fellow settler nations the US, Canada, & Australia) and have a very prominent presence in New Zealand, contributing much to its culture. All Kiwis study the Maori language in school and it’s totally normal for a white Kiwi to greet you with “Kia ora!” (hello in Maori).
The Maori have a lot more control over land and more legal protections than indigenous peoples in other settler nations, but they still have poor health outcomes and higher unemployment & lower wages compared to white Kiwis.
The Maori call New Zealand Aotearoa, which is the traditional Maori name for the North Island (they had no name for the two islands collectively). Since New Zealand is a dumb name made up by the man who discovered NZ for white people–he simply named it after his home state in the Netherlands, which is nothing like NZ–there has been talk of officially changing the country’s name (as Turkey > Turkiye did recently) but it would be prohibitively expensive so is unlikely to happen.
More random observations on Maori culture:
- It’s common for Maori men and women to get face tattoos, most commonly on their chins. Pre-colonization Maori nobility used to have their face fully tattooed.
- During my time in NZ, there were many protests by Maoris over policies of a new conservative government that are attempting to take back some progressive measures to help their community, including one which would ban the display of one’s tattoos in public places, which is just ridiculous in today’s tattoo-filled world. (The justification for this is to ban gang tattoos, but it’s hard to distinguish gang vs. non-gang tattoos.) This law would of course strongly impact Maoris with face tattoos.
- Every single time I hung out with a group of Maoris, they were as giggly and upbeat as could be. Every conversation was just a series of jokes and even a conversation about a boring topic is usually held lightheartedly. This very much includes straight men (the majority of whom I would not normally describe as extremely upbeat or giggly in most other countries)–I hitchhiked with a group of 5 security guards who were on their way to work and they just couldn’t stop laughing the whole time as they talked to each other.
- The Maori greeting involves putting your noses together! I love it.
And fun fact: I first heard of the Maori when I had a Maori Women’s Studies professor in uni 🙂
Kiwi Speak
I read a book of this name that talk me some fun Kiwiisms I tried to use during my time here:
- “What’s the happs?” = What’s up?
- “How ya garn?” = How are you?
- “Ka pai!” = Maori for good, also used by white Kiwis
- “Haven’t seen you in yonks” = It’s been a while
- “She’ll be right!” = It’ll be ok
- “He’s a kumara short of a hangi” = He’s dumb (kumara is a Maori sweet potato & hangi is a Maori feast cooked underground)
- “Sweet as!” = Yes / agreed
- TTFN = Bye! (short for ta ta for now)
- “Dunny” = Toilet
- “The wop wops” = The middle of nowhere
- “Happy as Larry” = Satisfied
- “It’s colder than a witch’s tit” = It’s freezing
- “Sheep stealers” = Aussies 😉
- “You’ve got the brains of a chocolate fish” = You’re an idiot (chocolate fish is a popular candy here lol)
- “OE” = Overseas experience (travel, study abroad, working abroad, etc.)–the most important Kiwiism to know, as most Kiwis I met enthusiastically told me about their OEs and assumed I knew what an OE was 🙂
Kiwifruit
If you’re talking about eating the fruit, you can never say kiwi in New Zealand, as people might think you’re referring to the bird or maybe even a New Zealander person lol. Here, kiwifruit is the term that’s always used.
Hitchhiking Stories
I did a ton of hitchhiking in New Zealand as I didn’t have a campervan (this is the iconic way that travelers explore New Zealand but isn’t financially viable for the average solo backpacker like myself). As always, I met some amazing people and it fostered some of the best stories of my time here!
- A mom in a red minivan with a 4-year-old and a 5-year-old in tow drove me for 4 hours from the Bay of Islands to Hamilton!
- A Maori grandpa with a required breathalyzer in his car told me about his history as a meth & alcohol addict, along with great stories about his childhood with his big family of 14 siblings
- A former war crimes investigator who worked in Afghanistan and the Balkans (along with his gregarious wife)
- An enthusiastic 20-year-old half-Danish, half-Kiwi Trump supporter who surprisingly also has a lot of love for Denmark’s high-tax, high-welfare system
- A former oyster fisherman whose work took him from New Zealand to Antarctica, where he once had to be rescued by harness into a helicopter from the ship during a storm!
- A Maori woman who was raised in an urban setting and left her family at a young age who, unusually for Maori, doesn’t feel connected to the culture and doesn’t speak the language.
- A cop who works in search & rescue and was on his way to a mountain hut to help a guy who was having a heart attack!
- A former city girl who’s now married to a farmer who has 800 cows & 1,000 pigs!! (She had a cute 1-year-old and 4-year-old in the car.)
- An elderly sheepherder who explained who owned each property we passed on our entire 1.5-hour drive lol
- It was super iconic to meet a sheepherder in NZ, the country of sheep!
- A Maori woman who responded with “my aunt!” when I asked who her favorite singer was (her aunt is indeed a famous singer who performs in the Maori language) and who told me about a protest against the new conservative government’s anti-face-tattoo policy (a Maori tradition)
- A stay-at-home dad who thinks it’s unfair that men don’t usually get to spend so much time with their children (obviously, the bigger inequality here is something else lol but it was cute) and shared about how he is intentionally trying to raise his kids in a different way from his problematic upbringing
- A white Kiwi and a Maori Kiwi who were on their way to a Maori traditional plant medicine class–it seemed like this was a community service-esque punishment for a crime or something LOL but I couldn’t confirm
- A 38-year-old grandma (!) who works as a palliative care nurse and still is sad every time one of her dying patients passes away
- A dad who works the night shift cleaning a meatplanting plant and only gets to see his kids 2 days a week due to the schedule
- An elderly Irish immigrant who recently went viral in his home country when he threatened his squatter with a saw lolllll. (He also self-identified as autistic and as a recent convert to Islam!)
- A guy who runs a farm with 100+ cattle as a hobby and makes absolutely no profit off it! (He has a day job.)
The Temporarily Unisex Bathroom
I was pleased to see that the large bathroom in my hostel in Lake Tekapo was gender-neutral (and had urinals, interestingly) and then when I went to use the bathroom again a bit later (I pee a lot, ok?! ) I noticed that it was closed for cleaning and that it was now labeled a men’s restroom. I walked around the corner and the other restroom was now labeled as unisex (with a sign I now realized was temporary).
So basically while they’re cleaning the men’s restroom, they label the women’s as unisex and vice versa. I like this tactic lol.
Whatever Women Need
I stopped by the Auckland Women’s Centre to chat with coordinator Maia Hall about the great work they do and what feminism in New Zealand looks like under a newly-elected conservative government.
- The Women’s Centre is a place where women can go to for help with…literally anything! A common reason women contact them is for help with domestic abuse, but they also help women who want to start their own businesses, have parenting questions, need financial or legal support. (For issues like domestic abuse where dedicated orgs exist, women are often referred to other places that they might not have found on their own.)
- So it remains a safe space, it is a women and non-binary-only space–male-identified people like myself need to wait outside to be let in for meetings, etc.
- They host forums on topics like gender & climate change and which topics matter most to women in elections.
- Finally, they run courses on self-defense, knitting, and Maori language–to name a few.
- They’re currently undergoing a discussion of how to rebrand themselves to be more inclusive of trans and non-binary people, who they do often serve but aren’t currently very well-acknowledged in the org’s name
Maia also shared that due to traditional gender roles being strong in Maori communities, they often have difficulty participating in the workplace; and once they do, they receive significantly lower wages on average than white Kiwis.
Under the previous administration of world-famous feminist Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern, lots of anti-poverty initiatives were achieved, including free school lunches (amazing the US was ahead of NZ on this!), women’s health funding, direct financial support for parents, and free doctor’s visits for children under 14. These policies had the effect of taking 50,000 children out of poverty–not bad for a country of only 5 million! WE NEED THIS IN THE US IMMEDIATELY.
The Worst Racism in the Queer Community You’ll Find Anywhere
I had a drink in one of Wellington’s two gay bars with Vinod Bal, co-founder of Adhikaar Aotearoa–a South Asian queer org that is working to advance the rights of queer people of color (QPOC) in New Zealand through legal and policy changes. I loved that he (and apparently many in NZ) use the term rainbow community, rather than LGBTQ or queer community–mostly because my favorite color is rainbow but also because I find it to be equally all-inclusive as the word queer but more approachable.
A bit on their org:
- Adhikaar Aotearoa was founded by two South Asian queer friends (one young, one middle-aged) who felt there was a need for a dedicated space to advocate for their community in a country where queer activism has (until very recently) been essentially queer white activism.
- They advise police on how to improve their relationship with QPOC, a controversial initiative since many QPOC here are very anti-police due to issues like the Maori comprising 17% of New Zealand’s population and 50% of its prison population
- But Vinod cautioned not to perceive police here as being the same as American police as they are not. They have far fewer rights to do things like enter people’s homes or use weapons and it’s rare to hear of issues of police conduct here.
- In 2018, the New Zealand government formally apologized for its past anti-sodomy laws and expunged the records of gay men arrested under them. The NZ police have yet to apologize for their role in this though.
- They’re advocating for a Rainbow Refugee policy, which would be the first of its kind in the world and reserve 1% of refugee spots for queer people facing persecution. (They’re starting with this modest goal and it would likely increase in the future if this goes through.)
- They also help queer refugees (and queer South Asians who may not had any exposure to the queer community through youth and young adult life) integrate into the queer community
- They were part of the push for New Zealand to pass an anti-conversion therapy law in 2022, a big win. They hope to expand this law to include therapies done on NZ residents abroad (the Canadian law is written this way.
- Why? For stories like this: An Afghan New Zealand resident was inadvertently outed as bi to her family and they arranged to have her sent to Afghanistan, where she would be either killed or forcibly raped & married. While queer orgs were able to protect her from this fate, the current law wouldn’t have been able to help her.
- Another win: in 2023 New Zealand passed a law allowing for anyone to change their name or gender on government documents simply by self-identification. (Many other countries who allow ID changes have requirements like someone proving they’re taking hormone therapy, a certificate from a doctor, or even proof that they’ve done sex reassignment surgery–which many trans people either choose not to or are not able to do.)
And more on New Zealand queer issues in general:
- Vinod has traveled to 20+ countries and he was surprised to find that he experienced less racism from fellow queers in other countries than he’s experienced in NZ–a sentiment that he’s found is shared by other queer Kiwis of color.
- The why is unclear here–New Zealand’s Asian population has doubled since 2000, but so has the US’ so it doesn’t seem to be because of recency of immigration. (Vinod himself, by the way, is a 5th-generation Kiwi.)
- Adhikaar Aotearoa also did a survey and found that 44% of queer South Asians in New Zealand have been victims of violence, a sign that social change is still needed, even in a “progressive utopia” like NZ
- It’s still common for South Asian gay people here (and probably everywhere) to marry someone of the opposite sex and have children, even though they themselves know that they are gay, due to social pressure
- Vinod thinks it’s important for Americans to be aware of how much their political situation impacts the rest of the world
- When American (a**hole) conservative politicians raise alarms about trans people in bathrooms or trans youth athletes (for their own political benefit), these issues start to be discussed and have an impact in countries like New Zealand as well
- But also, in his opinion, the vast majority of queer activism in countries he’s visited is following a model created by the US and that no other country has nearly the same impact on global queer activism and lives as the US
- And to end on a positive note, New Zealand had the world’s first trans minister (the equivalent of a cabinet member in the US) way back in 1999 and this impressive woman, Georgina Beyer, happened to be Maori as well. She went viral 20 years ago (as much as this was a thing then) for confronting homophobic protesters and asking them “Why do you hate us so much?”
PeaceJoyAustin 