By Chris Russell, 01 December 2024
I have had my eye on this route for a while. Deep in the Kawekas is one of most remote places you can be in the North Island apart from parts of the Te Uruweras and Raukumara ranges. I also thought it wouldn’t be a bad one to hitch hike back from. My dad could drop me off at the Kaimanawa side near Oamuru hut because we go to Taupo often anyway to visit relatives. And at the other side the Taihape-Napier road is a pretty good road for a hitch hike because it has more than just trampers/hunters as traffic.
On this tramp I:
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Took basically no gas but found a full can left at Oamuru hut
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Watched a plane land at the Boyd Hut airstrip and meet the people flying it (who camped there instead of walking 5 minutes to the hut because that was too much bother)
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Met a cool guy in the middle named Rod who was also doing a Kainmanawa-Kaweka traverse but a slightly different route
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Ate dinner outside Harkness Hut which a view down the valley at sunset which was so beautiful I almost cried
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Saw Whio
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Swam in the Ngaruroro naked
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Ngaawapura Hut has a giant ‘log book’ (not the intentions book) that dates back to 1994 where people can write whatever they want
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Injured my knee and ankle somehow so had to do shorter days for the rest
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Swam in the Ngauroro again fully clothed because it was so hot I wanted my clothes to cool me down
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Encountered what I think is the steepest marked DOC track on the decent down to Cameron hut
Yeah the tramp was awesome but let’s talk about the more exciting part: The ride home.
I woke up at the final hut of the trip, Cameron Hut. I had purposely stayed at a hut close to the road so that I had most of the day to hitch hike, because I knew it was going to take a while. It was a pleasant river walk down the Ngaruroro River and I got out to the road about midday. Initially I thought I would only get a ride in the Taihape direction because down SH1 would be a bit quicker. But I noticed that there was less traffic than I expected overall, and about 90% of it was going in the Napier direction. Also a lot of the traffic was logging trucks, which didn’t seem like they wanted to give me a ride. So eventually I started putting my thumb out for rides in the Napier direction and almost immediately I got a ride! I initially thought it was a middle aged couple but after talking with them for a while I found out they just worked together, in quite a niche profession too ‘Disease Control’. I hadn’t heard of it before but basically they work with farmers to try to prevent livestock from getting diseases, most commonly Tuberculosis and Bovis. And they were on their way back from a work function in Taihape. One of them lived in Napier and one in Hastings and they made an effort to think of a good spot to drop me to get my next ride quickly. They decided just after the roundabout at Pakipaki, at the south of Hastings would be a good spot as all the traffic is going down SH2 and although it’s a 100kmh zone the cars are slowed down because of the roundabout. And they were right! It took less than 2 minutes before the next person picked me up, and I’m very glad I didn’t have to wait long because it was 30 degrees in the baking hawkes bay sun.
The person who picked me up this time was a young guy who worked as a ‘roofer’, he fixed roofs and lived in Waipawa or Waipukurau, I can’t remember but he was happy to drive me to Waipukurau regardless. I remember he was quite interested in the tramp I had just done, I think he wanted to try tramping. He also video called a family member at some point who said hi to me as well lol. He also played music a bit too loud for my ears but I didn’t want to tell him to turn it down since he was giving me a ride for free so I employed the strat of blocking one ear with my hand as I rested on it. Finally he dropped me at Waipukurau and I walked to the edge of town to stick my thumb out once again.
This time was still pretty quick, I waited about 5 minutes before an old lady pulled up and said “I know what this is all about, you can put your stuff in the boot”, she didn’t even ask where I was going which seemed weird and was giving me a bit of a red flag. I hesitated but I got in anyway. I asked where she was going and she said her farm over there, I was hoping she wasn’t taking me to her farm. Turns out she was just very odd and communicated strangely but she realised I was hitch hiking south and decided she knew a spot further along that was a better spot for a ride maybe a few kms down the highway. And she dropped me there, glad I wasn’t being kidnapped. Though I disagree that it was a better spot for a ride as the edge of town was fine and considering the heat I liked the option that I could go into the gas station for a drink/shade/the toilet. But it didn’t matter anyway because it was less than 5 minutes before my next ride.
The next person was a rough looking guy who worked at a meat processing factory nearby. He’s the kind of guy I wouldn’t voluntarily want to talk to but for a short ride it was fine. He was quite chatty but while he was chatting he was also speeding at about 115kmh. I didn’t notice this or feel unsafe because of it but there were plenty of cops around and sure enough, lights started flashing behind him and he pulled over. The cop was generous and only gave him a ticket for going <10kmh over and we continued. This guy wasn’t taking me all the way to the next town either, he just thought it would be helpful if he took me past the side road down to his factory because he knew his work mates were leaving about now and some would be going south from there.
Next was this hippie guy and he was super cool and we got on really well, he was my favourite to talk to on the way down. Unfortunately I have forgotten most of what we talked about, I think he hosted a creative space retreat thing which sounded cool. He was actually going to give me a huge ride all the way to palmy but that meant I had to make a decision on whether to cross over to the west and continue trying to hitch hike down SH1 instead, there were a lot of factors to think about. In my experience SH1 was more difficult for hitch hiking for a couple reasons. One more of the drivers live in cities and city people seem less likely to pick someone up than rural folk and two I think there is so much traffic that everyone thinks “Oh someone else will pick them up” and then no one picks you up. It was also amazing weather here and I checked the forecast for the west and it was showering and like at least 5 degrees colder. The only drawback of staying on the east on SH2 was the Remutaka hill roadworks which meant that I would need to find a ride over the hill by 9pm. It was about 4pm at this point so I had a reasonable amount of time but it was still a gamble. If I went over to the west I could at least call my dad to come pick me late. But at the same time the weather was nice over here so I could just sleep in a bush in the Wairarapa, it wouldn’t be the worst thing in summer. So in the end I decided to take the risk and stay on the west, so I got the guy to drop me in Woodville instead.
With a lot of the traffic going over the hill to palmy I noticed there was significantly less traffic going down SH2 as I waited at the end of town. I probably waited 15 minutes this time when I tradie picked me up. We honestly barely talked but I didn’t mind. This time my ride only got me one town over to Pahiatua where he lived. This is where I lost my enthusiasm. The clouds from the west rolled over the gap in the Ruahines and the Tararuas so the sun was gone which made it feel like it was getting dark much quicker than it really was. It was 5:30pm and sure I still time but 90% of the traffic was going the wrong way as they entered Pahiatua to go home for the night rather than travel further. I waited about 25 minutes with no ride and was mentally preparing to find a spot to sleep for the night. I went across the road to the gas station to grab a drink to hopefully cheer me up. But once I got back to my waiting spot across the road, a woman filling up gas yelled across the road “Where you off to?”. “Towards Wellington!” I said. “We can take you to Eketuhuna”. Awesome I thought, it’s not that far of a ride but I’d much rather make some progress and wait in a different town instead. It was a Maori couple that lived in Eketuhuna and they were lovely. I don’t remember what we talked about but I remember them being quite funny and making me laugh so that was nice.
On arriving in Eketuhuna I expected another long wait as theoretically the traffic should be quite similar to Pahiuatua but I hadn’t even walked to the edge of town to my waiting spot when a black SUV looked like it was trying to pull over for me. Though since I had not found a good spot yet there wasn’t really a nice place to pull over. So I watched as the driver awkwardly slowed down but then gave up and continued driving out of sight. ‘Understandable’ I thought, I probably would’ve done the same. I got to my waiting spot expecting another long wait when 2 minutes later I saw the same black SUV coming the other way. They had turned around and come back for me! It was an Asian couple that didn’t speak great English but I was so grateful. On top of that they were going all the way to Upper Hutt! So I would get past the Remutaka roadworks before they start and I could just get a train from there! So I was buzzing and poetically the weather then cleared back to lovely sun again. We didn’t talk much either but I do remember thinking that they didn’t look like the type to pick up hitch hikers so I asked “Do you normally pick up hitch hikers?” the guy had “No, I never have but you seemed like a nice guy on the side of the road”.
They dropped me off at Upper Hutt and I waited for my train. It’s always a strange feeling being back in the city with a huge pack on your back and probably smelling like shit. But you don’t care because you’ve just done something sick. And I felt very accomplished having done a 5 day tramp from Taupo to Napier(ish) then successfully hitch hiking half way down the country over 8 different rides. It’s also such an interesting experience having to make conversation with the random person that picks you up. Each person that picked me up this trip was so different to the last.
