Kia’s Answers

I’m sorry to dissapoint that the next Road Test wasn’t the Convection Oven as promised how ever this Roat Test wasn’t planned!

I was heading home from Surfers when I spotted a young, dashing hitchhiker on the side of the road sporting a sign for a town about an hours drive away down the motorway.  I then spotted his equally dashing mate carrying a sign that said “PLEASE“.  It was the please that sinched it so laughing, I decided it was time to Road Test the hitchhiker, did a U-Turn a while down the road, however, upon my second pass they were missing!  I spot two lads looking forlorn sitting at a bus-stop up the road so I parked nearby and jumped out.  I was relived to see the signs still in their hands and that I wasn’t just approaching some randoms, then realised I actually was.

Without any introduction I said “Jump in”  the nearest guy looks taken aback, hopeful and excited all at the same time and says, “Are you going to Byron?!!” and it was about then I realised they were English tourists who’d had a shower and a shave and not some psyhco junkie bums that smelt like old rusty cans of cat food so it was off to a good start!  I jump into my car while the boys are putting their gear in my boot but then I relized a fat old man with a silver beard at the bus stop has turned around and taken it upon himself to glare at me.  I later found out that his wife was just telling the boys that if she was their mother she’d be giving them an earfull right then…  But if she was their mother she would’ve been 65 when she gave birth.  Haha, naw, just kidding, old people rock.

So anyways, just like that, their gear is in my boot and I’m battling congested traffic down the highway while making polite conversation.  The one in the front, Henry, introduces himself and his friend Francis and the chatting commences.  They’ve just been in Africa for three months teaching and more recently arrived in Australia and spent 9 days in Sydney which was described as fun and expensive and were meeting some mates in Byron so they could all road-trip up north.  They seemed keen to find out as many places that they should visit while in Australia so I shared with them some places I knew about near Cairns.

It wasn’t too long before I realized I was about two minutes away from my house but they had just finished telling me how easy it was to hitchhike in Africa and they had expected it to be so much more difficult in Australia so I thought, “Why not?  Why not drive the entire way down to a whole other city and take one for the team, spread the word that Australians love travelers so much they’ll go above and beyond the call of duty?!!” …  I suppose I didn’t really think that, I just missed my turnoff, but I’m typing it now, aren’t I?!!

So about 34ks left to go the boys realized that I had passed my house a long time ago and were like “Oh no!  You didn’t have to do that!!  Just kick us out anywhere, we’ll make it there!  We hadn’t even expected to be picked up by now!”  So I lol’d and kept driving.  I figured, it was only another 20 minutes away and they were actually really animated company with their enthusiasm to try all things Australian including Tooheys New, possibly going up to Townsville and get their hands on some $5 rum & coke jugs and snorkle off Maggi Island…  We continued to chat about random things, Francis and I spied a huge tree stump carved into a surfer with a board though Henry thought I was pointing at the giant avocado further up the road advertising “Tropical Fruit World”.  We saw about 6 sky divers coming down on the horizon that ended up landing in a field just next to us.  I spotted a massive dead kangaroo on the grassy median strip mere seconds after Henry had just said he’d like to see some of the native Australian animals but I didn’t really feel like saying to him “OO!  There’s a dead one!” :-D   Welcome to Australia.

After passing a “Welcome to Byron” sign after all the beautiful and eventful scenery the boys confessed that they had expected to be picked up by some weirdo beardo in some dodgy car and were stoked that I turned out to be pretty cool.  I pulled over in a bus zone at godknowswhere in Byron, Henry said “I can’t believe you just did that. I have to give you some money at least.” I lol’d again and said it was completely unneccessary.  Just like driving all the to Byron was, but hey, I had nothing else on cause the meat for my Convection Oven Road Test tonight was already marinating in the fridge.

After driving the entire 45 minutes back home I reflected on my adventure:

A third of a tank of petrol swapped for a long and scenic drive, some interesting stories, some company where I would’ve had none otherwise and I wasn’t hacked to pieces with the machetti they confessed to having concealed in their backpacks while we were passing a field of sugarcane.

I give Henry & Francis the Hitchhikers: 5/5