Tauranga and Mt Maganui
Trip Start
Jul 12, 2006
1
105
230
Trip End
Jun 18, 2007
Taurange,
New Zealand
Friday, November 17, 2006
Anyway, we set out up the coast, one minute it's cloudy then sunny and then it started raining again and then we got to Mt Manganui and it started turning into a lovely sunny day. Mt Manganui is an old volcano dome that sits about 232m above the sea. We decided to hike up it as the views are meant to be really good, and they were, but the walk up was steep and quite hard really. Lots of people were walking up and down it though, some locals obviously used it for a power walk and a jogging track as well. It took about 45 minutes to get to the top after a hard slog uphill, we decided to take the shorter but difficult track rather than the longer moderate track.
My Manganui
At the top you could see quite far, over one side of the mount there was the sea and over the other side was a huge forest. We took a few pictures then decided to head down on the moderate track. Mt Manganui was a lovely place, like a little seaside town. I liked it much better than Whakatane. It had a pleasant feel to it, a relaxing charm, you could imagine yourself sitting on a balcony somewhere in the evening sun sipping chilled champers or maybe pimms, with fruit and cucumber in, watching the sun set over the water and waiting for the little fishing boats to come in. Whereas Whakatane reminded me of Romford town centre. Just over the water from Mt Manganui was Tauranga, the biggest town in the Corramandel, so we decided to head there and stop the night. I don't think either of us wanted to leave Mt M but it was quite small with not many accommodation options. But the bridge to Tauranga was really busy as was the place itself and I'm rubbish at map reading so instead of getting us to a hostel I got us in the wrong lane during a rush hour traffic jam and took us towards the port instead of over the bridge to where we needed to be. Lee wasn't very chuffed as the traffic was a bit of a nightmare, the town was really busy and I was getting stressed which made my map reading, and my ability to tell my left from my right, even worse. We couldn't park anywhere to get out and see the hostels so ended up going around and around in circles until the wrong lane, traffic jam, port point. That's when Lee spotted a vacant (and free) parking space, pulled into it and decided to have a minute.
The top of the walk at Mt Manganui
He jumped out to have a breath of fresh air and I stopped in the car reading the Lonely Plant trying to figure out which was we needed to go. God knows what Auckland will be like! As it turned out, it wasn't a bad decision because while Lee was sitting on the grass soaking up the sun he, quite randomly, got talking to a bloke named Jospeh who was staying on a boat nearby doing work for the church. I've said it before but you really do meet the most interesting people in the weirdest of places! We stopped, sitting at the side of the road for a while, chatting away while the traffic went down a bit, then we drove back into town and found a parking space near the harbour. The meters had finished now so it was free thank god, which meant we could have a wander around and look at a few hostels. The best one was full, one was really tiny and the first one we looked at, Harbourside hostel, had a funny smell in the room but we decided to go with this one as it was the most central. Tauranga is a coastal town that's a holiday destination for Kiwi's, so there weren't too many backpackers out and about. We decided to treat our self to a night out so chucked stuff in room and headed out. Our hostel was right on the main strip, full of bars and restaurants. It had quite a nice feel to it but not as nice or quiet as Mt M. I think we both wished we'd stayed there. But to be fair, we wouldn't have had such a top night out. We sampled a few of the bars along the esplanade before deciding to treat ourselves even further with a meal out at Lonestar. The last time we went out for a proper meal out was in Kaikoura almost 8 weeks ago and as we'd had a few quiet nights we went the full hog - scallops and ribs to start followed by steak for lee and stuffed chicken for me. It was delicious, the nicest thing by far even nicer because I hadn't had to cook it and neither of us had to wash up. The waitress did warn us that the portions were huge and she wasn't wrong. But the food didn't go to waste as we got a doggy bag to take out with us. On the way home we stopped at a pub for a beer, by this time most places had live music on, we heard all the bands as we walked past but the one they had on at the pub we chose was just awful, the duo consisted of mullet man and chubby friend. They were playing quite modern songs to an old crowd really who just didn't appreciate them. Even the barmaid apologized for how bad the band were when I bought our drinks - that's not a good sign. The best bit was when they played Green Day - American Idiot and chubby bloke started playing a kazoo.,, it was classic. I'm not sure anyone could believe it. One older gentleman shouted 'Thank god for that' out loud when they finished. Bless 'em for trying. Still, I clapped when they finished each song to encourage them, the kazoo playing was worth it.
