I never hitched. It was more like “bumming” a ride. It was a 3 hour ride on bus to Suva. Going by car cut it down to 1 hour. So whenever possible we would try to get a teacher with a car to give us a lift.
The road to Nausori was very rough with many potholes, small and large.
Ian was very amenable to do so and gave us the most rides. It was always an adventure wondering if we would make it in his car.
 We would stop at Tong Lee, Korovou, Nausori to top up the oil or water.
And then there were the flat tires.
 Murphy (fastest driver) and Breeze gave us lifts a few times. And a couple times we went on/in the school truck.
One time I was on the bus which had stopped in Nausori. I saw a PWD vehicle and Korisi (boss). So I jumped off the bus and asked for ride to QVS.
Peter relates the time he and Woody hitched to Suva. They were picked up by an Indian. When they reached the city he asked them to pay for petrol!!!!
 At the pump:
$NZ 2.61/litre
$NZ10.05/gal ($US6.03) |
I am talking about hitch hiking. My first experience with it was in the summer of 1960 when Gary Olson were camping at my grandparents’ farm. We decided to walk three miles to North Redwood where there was a general store. It was a gravel road with no shoulders and each time a vehicle came we would get into the ditch. Every single one would stop and offer us a ride. We turned them down. And they thought we were crazy to be walking in the heat.
In 1969 I was a Peace Corps Volunteer training on the Big Island. I hitched several times over the 3 months. There was talk of surfing. I had no idea where to go. I took off toward Honokaa in search of a beach. Most went in the other direction toward Lapahoehoe which was 13 miles and I had no intention of hitching. I figured I could walk the 6 miles to Honokaa. On the way I ran into Tom standing in the middle of the road trying to hitch a ride either direction. He had left an hour before I had. Having only been in the country for one day and totally ignorant we decided that we should head for Kona beach [on other side of island]. And that is how I ended up doing my first hitchhiking. We were picked up right away by two teenagers in a super hot '55 station wagon. They gave us a ride to Honokaa and found there was no beach. So we began walking and were immediately picked up by a VW van. The driver and his wife were from Australia and ran a cruise service. They were going to Hapuna Beach, so we quickly decided that was where we were also going.
When 4 o'clock came along Tom and I started our trek home. It is sixteen miles from the beach to Waimea and nothing but desert and up hill most of the way. There was little traffic, but I was undaunted based upon my only other hitchhiking experience earlier in the day. After about a mile we caught a ride in the back of a pick up truck to Waimea. Our luck changed and the crowds leaving the beach all passed us by. After 3 miles Tom began cursing each car as it went past. Finally, a car picked us up for a lift to Honokaa. We got a ride from a guy from Oregon and his Hawaiian wife and son. They insisted on bringing us right to the school.
Found out that locals were wary of hippies who were causing some trouble. So we were advised to carry a sign that said "Peace Corps". The ones who picked us up always seemed to have guessed that, anyway. The main thing I learned was that in Hawaii you don't "thumb" a ride; you made an arm gesture down to the side of the road. Cross-culture in action.
 In December the fourteen of us who had practice taught at Kohala returned to Ookala. We stopped for a buffet lunch at Rockerfeller’s Mauna Kea Beach hotel. I stopped to get a photo of the golf course and was left behind!!! I walked the entire desert section getting only two short rides. I got a lift into Waimea by a Hawaiian fisherman who also had a real live hippie in the car. I had to walk 5-6 miles in a drizzle before being picked up by a boy from Honokaa. He roared up to 90mph and then coasted down hills the last ten miles never going below 60mph. I had little luck from there and walked half of the distance before an old German fellow gave me a lift.
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