Hitching in NZ exposes underbelly

Anna Wallis PHOTO/FILE

Reading the coroner's report on the death of hitchhiker Dagmar Pytlickova had an eerie feel to it.

Another hitchhiker from overseas murdered in the beautiful back blocks of New Zealand, somehow thinking thumbing lifts in this country was safe - or worth the risk.

Pytlickova, 31, was killed while trying to hitchhike to Cave from Cromwell in May 2012. Ms Pytlickova was in New Zealand on a working holiday with her sister, Jana, and had been working at a vineyard. She was picked up from a layby on State Highway 8 outside Cromwell and murdered in a forestry block in the Hunter Hills, near Waimate.

Having hitchhiked around Queensland myself when I was younger, I know the pull of the independence and mobility through thumbing lifts. It was stupid then and it is stupid now.

But this country is irresponsible in not being more upfront about the dangers of getting rides.

Yes, people make their own decisions and, yes, there are relatively cheap buses, but I don't think young people, especially women, realise that hitchhiking exposes them to the underbelly of New Zealand society, the part that fuels our horrible domestic violence and child abuse statistics.

Like those perpetrators, men who murder hitchhikers don't have horns growing out of their heads.

The coroner investigating the death of Dagmar Pytlickova reiterated police advice to hitchhikers to not accept rides from strangers, or not to hitchhike alone.

But we need to do much more and get the message out there as clearly and as shockingly as possible to make hitchhiking unthinkable. Perhaps along with the 100 per cent Pure campaigns and gorgeous photos of our scenery that line the walls of international arrival halls we need to show the faces and tell the stories of those who have died by simply sticking their thumb out and meeting a monster.

It's not attractive but at least we will have made a bigger effort to tell our guests the truth.