Adventures in Tauranga

Mount Maunganui Here we Come!

After a good nights sleep and a strong cup of coffee, I was ready to start a new day. We took showers (I have to say I love the towel warmers here!) and prepared for whatever the day would hold for us. We decided to head to Mount Maunganui, which is another extinct volcano in this region. You have to dress in layers we have learned because when the sun is out, you are so warm and then it goes behind a cloud and the wind blows and you’re cold! 

  Downtown Mount Maunganui is a quaint, cute, beautiful little area. We stopped for breakfast at Blondies deli and diner. David ordered us drinks first and I got just an iced latte and he got an iced chocolate. We discovered that an iced chocolate is really just chocolate milk! Lol too funny. For breakfast I got avocado toast with these cherry tomatoes on top that were so perfectly cooked. They just burst in your mouth. David ordered burrito a breakfast burrito, and some tater tots. We sat outside at a little table and watched as noisy seagulls squawked and flew around.

After breakfast, we headed to Mount Maunganui Beachside Holiday Park. Parking was sparse so we took the first place we could. Decided to walk around a bit and get the lay of the land. Our trail lead us right beside a bay where many boats were docked. Our extremely wind blown walk led us to the foot of the mountain before we turned around and headed back to the car. We wanted to park closer to the beginning of the hike, but as we were searching, went around the corner and there was a beautiful beach, right there! 

 We were lucky enough to find parking but instead of going up the mountain we chose to head to the beach. Of course… Because you know me! It was not near as windy on this side of the inlet. We took our beach towel, sunblock, and water, and found our own little piece on the sandy paradise.

 I found a wide variety of lovely, colorful seashells, but most of them had been damaged from years of tumbling around in the tides. In Hawaii, there are only teeny weenie shells on the beach.

 I was excited to see these large ones. The water was pretty cold, but many people were braving it to surf or swim. But not us! We enjoyed the little slivers of sun that came out to warm us, but it was mostly cloudy skies. 

After an hour or so we decided to check out the restaurants across the street. Our choice was one that had outside seating and we ordered some calamari and a drink. As we sat, I was working on this blog as I am behind! Time to head home for a nap.

Glow Worm Kayaking Tour

Yep! That’s really what we’re going to do. But first we need to get some dinner. We headed to the summit Takeaway and ordered some fish and chips. We only got one order of the chips, which are french fries and it was enough to feed a small village. The fish was breaded amazingly and was delicious.

 Then we hit the road to meet our group for our evening kayak glowworm adventure. We met our guide, Leo, and the two other guys that were going with our group, Sam and Evan. Excited that we have such a small group. Everyone loaded up in the van and we were off. Drove up to a nearby and had a lovely platter of fresh fruit and snacks including grapes,  cheese and crackers and beverages.

 

Next came the hilarious event of putting on of the many a layers that we would need in order to kayak in the breezy evening.  Leo was a wonderful teacher and telling us

everything we needed to know before we hit the water. In front of the Boat to be the paddle pacesetter, and David was in the back being our steersman. Our steering was a little faulty, but not the fault of David. Leo pushed us into the river and we went. OK, kayaking is not as easy as it looks. I was trying to do the paddle back-and forth, but every time I would rap my knuckles on the side of the boat, I had to keep adjusting my paddle technique. I finally found something that worked and

I was pretty sure I could make the hour paddle. The lake was absolutely gorgeous and calm spotted with numerous Canadian geese. As we followed Leo down the river He stopped a few times to give us information about the flora and river itself. We met up with another group in a longboat as the skies darkened, and we went to seek the glowworms. Leo told us a traditional Māori tale followed by the other lead, telling us the scientific aspect of what glow worms were. The glowworms really did glow and light up the dark rock with many beautiful lights.

Look closely and you’ll see some small twinkles! Time then to paddle back to our starting place where Leo safely pulled us up to the dock. What an incredible trip and peaceful time on the water. I highly recommend you doing this adventure! Got home at about 10:30 pm  and our host Drew was still up. He met us outside and we talked for a  bit and he told us that he used to work with the glowworm group. Stayed up a bit and read and then hit the sack. 

I learned that in Zealand they call cantaloupe, “rock fruit”.  Still tastes like cantaloupe to me! We all ate to give us energy for the paddle as geese and swamp meandered  around our picnic table.