New Zealand



New Zealand is a reasonably okay country for hitchhiking. There are a lot of friendly people, and hitching is legal and comparatively safe. By hitching you'll be involved a lot in the local life. You'll have invitations to parties, homes. Cars drive on the left side, so be careful if you're not experienced with that.

At least in high and shoulder season, hitchhiking is very popular among backpackers travelling around New Zealand, especially the South island. Leave early before hostel checkout times (usually 10pm) and you have better chances to avoid competition situations among hitchhikers.

There are only motorways around the big cities, Auckland, Christchurch, Wellington and Dunedin

In General
Another awesome place to travel, WWOOF and hitch. Not as many long distance rides as in the Australian outback, but towns were quite close together. Amory Tarr had no troubles coming up and down the west coast (South Island), or in fact anywhere really. The only problem spot was in the concrete jungle that is auckland. It is illegal to even walk on any of the motorways, including the on-ramps ($200 instant fine). It is also a very, very big city to walk across. If you want to head south your best bet is to go to the bus station under the sky tower and get a ticket to Bombay junction (about $15) and when you get there, walk across the road to the on ramp which has plenty of space. Heading north, get a bus to Orewa (which is worth visiting on its own) and hitch from there.

South Island
On the South Island you will often be picked up by travelers, especially along the West Coast, where there isn't a lot of traffic.

If you are hitching between Greymouth and Wanaka you might have the fortune to score a ride with one of the DHL drivers aka the local posties. They are a couple of awesome guys who meet up in Fox Glacier to swap packages (and hitch hikers too if you are lucky!). An easy way to catch your lift is using the websites of backpackerscarpooling.com or jayride.co.nz. Here you'll find travellers sharing their transport. A great way to meet like-minded travellers going the same way as you.

Maps

 * newzealand.com

When?
Summers start in October/November but being a maritime climate the weather can be changeable. The weather in January - March is a little more settled.

North Island

 * Auckland, biggest city
 * Hamilton (New Zealand)
 * Tauranga
 * New Plymouth
 * Wellington, the capital city

South Island

 * Blenheim
 * Christchurch
 * Dunedin
 * Invercargill
 * Kaikoura
 * Nelson
 * Picton
 * Queenstown
 * Richmond
 * Aoraki/Mt Cook

isin: Oceania

trash:New Zealand

Online
Hitch hiking and ridesharing websites exist in NZ. Try these ones:

Jayride - probably NZ's busiest ridesharing site

backpackerscarpooling - a useful site to find lifts

Accommodation
Rules have tightened up since the 2011 rugby world cup on freedom camping. Now in general if you pitch a tent basically anywhere that isn't a designated camping spot you can face a $200 fine. The main reason behind this is because too many tourists left their rubbish and poop on the ground in traditional free camping spots. Please respect New Zealand and never leave anything, including your defecation, on the ground after camping somewhere. A map with all camping spots including free ones can be found at http://www.rankers.co.nz/respect. But unfortunately a lot of free ones are only available for the rich tourists with fully enclosed camper vans and you might find yourself woken up by a council person giving you a $200 fine if you are found tenting there. So check the rules first.

Neuseeland Nueva Zelanda nomad:New Zealand