Boatshed Motel Apartments Mt. Maunganui Tauranga

... been looking forward to seeing the “Kiwi Christmas trees” – Pohutukawa – and they are in full bloom all around the beach and town.

We decided to do the steep hike to the top of Mt Maunganui. The magnificient views from the top include Tauranga and its harbor on one side and the Bay of Plenty on the other. When we reached the top we saw two guys who decided not to walk back down; they jumped off the cliff with parasails!

... br>

At night we go to the Polynesian Spa on the lake side where you can see the stars while becoming thoroughly relaxed in the hot mineral water.




The day after having done a fair bit of work to keep the diary up to date and run some errands in town I get picked up by the MC Gregors of the apple house farm. Mari is waiting for me!

6:30am wake up call to look out and see Tauranga awaiting us! We set off this morning on an excursion to the Kaituna Jet Boat Tour and Kiwi Farm. After boarding the Kaituna Jet that per their advertisement says "is build for speed" we were wondering why no one else wanted to sit in the back seat. Being the good volunteers that we are, we took our seats and later discovered the reasoning. In our minds however we were the lucky ones, as the blast of ...

... me up and I in turn pulled an English guy up onto the raft which is quite big compare to me. I am not indirectly say I am strong....haha....serious. There end our rafting trip. If those who want a longer trip, you could try the Wairoa River flooded by Hydroelectric plant 25 times only a season. Every Sunday I think, it will be a good one too creating some of the best rapids in the area. Who knows I might be back to do the ...

Tuesday we went off to Tauranga where we had a very enjoyable time with Pete and Lynne who is the sister of one of our Sydney friends. Lynne runs a nearby winery and after a tour round the winery we enjoyed (naturally!) tasting of the produce, and bought some bottles as presents. After dinner we sat in the warmth and bubbles in their spa in a corner of the garden while Pete lit a blazing fire in a wood brazier chatted away the ...

... time" (it can take up to 45 minutes to get a coffee, up to 30 minutes to fill up your gas tank and even longer to get a soup and a sandwich at a so-called "travelers stop"). Not to mention the lack of courtesy and the great enthusiasm for ripping off any unsuspecting tourist that happened to come visit their country. Therefore, before getting down to the business of telling you what we did in NZ, we wanted to vent and let you know that, if at times you see that ...

... pool is approx 150C at its coolest & is a bright blue tinged by bright red rocks. As it is so hot there are loads of boiling bubbles & sulphur steam coming off it. It was actually really nice to sit beside the pool and let the steam blow all over you! It probably is possible to get into this park for free as well by going in the exit path as again no-one is checking tickets here. That afternoon we went to see the Kiwi ...

... amp; Tauranga called 'Suicide Highway' in two places, only to be ridden on at weekends if you have to. So, it being a Wednesday and despite the hostel owner saying 'I don't know why they call it that, its fine' which seemed a little reminiscent of the 'you just hop over the fence' incident, I don't think this guy had cycled anywhere recently, I got the bus! This involved ...

... He didn't move much though - I think he was wary of my reputation and didn't want to incur my wrath if he was pesky. During dinner (the meat from the Hangi) we got talking to some German girls. They were very sweet and took their own photo of me to take home too.

... sand beach with surfable waves and some fishing spots-. I don't know why but the second night some ******* egged our van and we had to spend a good couple of hours getting rid of the smell and egg spots- oh well life will go on! Our van needed a good washing anyways I guess- that just made us do it! We then drove up the coast for a short while and cut inland towards Toupo. There we slept off the beaten path and woke up to a beautiful sun rise. One of ...