Hitch-hiking is a world within itself. Using this as our only way of exploring the big island of Hawaii was an experience I won’t soon forget. These days in our society, working full time and seeing the world pass us by from our office and commuter car windows, we quickly wonder about the hitch-hikers on the side of the road, as we pass by them, not giving them another thought as we continue on our way to work, or home from work. At least that was my outlook. It was rare that I would even think about picking them up, in fact I have only ever picked up one hitch-hiker in my life, a girl standing outside the Whistler hostel trying to get toward Squamish. I was on my way home from work, and I saw a girl that looked like me from afar, with a backpack. My mind instantly judged her as a traveller, trying to make her way around a new world. My assumption was wrong, she was trying to get to work on time, she had missed the bus. Not all hitch-hikers are what they seem. They aren’t all broke travellers or people that are down on their luck, what I have learned lately is that most of them are very smart people who choose not to have a vehicle of their own, for whatever ethical, environmental or money related reason, and they seem to know that in this world we can get by on the kindness of each other, if our hearts are open to it.Getting by on the kindness of others, such a concept I have avoided for so long, trying to make my way on my own terms and in my own way, accepting as little help as I could. Where I got this mindset I am not sure, but I am proud of myself for doing it as long as I did, as it is not easy to do so many things on your own, with the help of as few people as possible. Thanks to my parents, for mostly being the only ones I would accept help from, and they are still offering.
Opening my mind to hitch-hiking our way around the big island of Hawaii was quite the feat for me, I had a lot of reservations about allowing myself to do this, not only about not having full independence and control that having my own vehicle gives me, but also about being judged, as I (sadly) used to judge hitch-hikers as I drove past them. As hard as I try to not allow other people’s judgements to affect me, I think we all secretly want to be somewhat accepted by the societal masses, and I am definitely not excluded from this. Luckily I was able to open a small enough part of my mind to accept hitch-hiking around the island as “an option if we can’t catch the bus”. I’m glad now, looking back, that I was able to open that small corner of space to the idea, because getting by on the kindness of others, became more to me than bumming rides, it became a true awakening to how kind our world is. While making our way around, From the city of Kona-Kailua and back around, we were not only given rides, we were given food, advice, hugs, ideas, friends, and drinks. Other than our bag of rice, bean and spices, $90 and our cozy tent, we did literally survive on the kindness of others.
One man we met camping, Peter, drove us from camp to the farmers market, a coffee shop and a grocery store, and back to camp, all because the night before, over a Moosehead that Peter wanted to share because we are Canadian, we decided that the three of us just wanted to go. Another group of ladies that we met, picked us up from the campground, brought us to a Talk-Story, a type of Luau in Hawaii, shared their food with us, and drove us back to the campground, an hour commute each way. This was at the beginning of our way around, and it just continued from there. So many people that we met at campgrounds offered us rides to our next destinations, offered us a place to stay or a nice meal. Some people offered us future rides, like one couple who drove us to the summit of Mauna Kea offered us a ride back down after sunset, and another group offered us a ride all the way from the summit back to Kona-Kailua in the dark after stargazing, when they barely had enough room for one of us, let alone both of us and our huge packs. There are so many more examples, but I could write a novel on the kindness of others we experienced from others during those 11 days.
That is the point I guess I am trying to make by writing this. There are so many people out there, way more than I ever could have dreamed of, who are willing to help, just for the sake of helping, not expecting anything in return, except maybe a touch of kindness and a thank you. I find myself wanting to help people now more so than I have before starting this trip. Not just with offering rides, but coffee in the morning after offering a drink the night before, to fix something that may be broken, or offering food if we have extra. Since having a vehicle, either our rental car or our new New Zealand van, we have picked up most hitch-hikers we see. Still not all, I still feel the need to judge based on my safety, but I have way more emotional attachment to the guy or girl on the side of the road, giving me a thumbs-up and a big smile, hoping to get by on the kindness of others, just like I did.
