Tauranga, NZ
February 3, 2023 - February 5, 2023
What a day! We just arrived in Tauranga from New Plymouth, NZ. On our 4 hour drive East, we stopped about 3 hours in at the Hobbiton movie set where both Lord of the Rings and The Hobbit were filmed. We’ll do a separate post on that with at least pictures. It was UNREAL!
We arrived at our Airbnb where Deanne and Gordon greeted us. They live in what we’d call a “suburb” in the States of Tauranga. They have a lovely home on a col-de-sac. Four years ago they built a separate unit above a garage to make in to an Airbnb. It is SO nice - they did such an amazing job on this unit. It’s a 1 bed/1 bathroom fully equip home with everything you’d need for a weekend stay or for a long-term stay. It’s so bright, cozy, and full of love! Gordon has a flag pole at the end of his drive. He changes the flag for each person that is staying with them. It was such a nice touch and a feeling of home when we pulled up to see the United States flag!
We unpacked our bags and then headed in to the City Centre for some dinner. We stopped at Cornerstone for a Happy Hour drink, moseyed down to The Crown and Badger for another Happy Hour drink (actually a drink and a half) and a chicken sandwich. Then headed to a Thai restaurant for some Larb and Spring Rolls! We were starving after the long drive and Hobbiton excursion.
We woke up the next day before sunrise to hike Mt Maunganui. The weather wasn’t the best, but we still headed around the base of the mountain first and then up the summit. On the hike around the mountain, we were lucky enough to spot a cruise ship coming in. We paused our walk to hop on some rocks to watch it go by. Two tug boats were there waiting for it to escort it in to the port. It was a pretty neat thing to watch! We then headed up the mountain - that trail was STEEP and cloudy. We did have some animal friends along the way to keep us company. The view as we got up the mountain kept getting cloudier and cloudier, so it wasn’t the best the beautiful morning sunrise view at the top that I was imagining, but it could have been worse!
We made our way down the mountain and had ourselves a cup of coffee at a local coffeeshop. Then we walked over to the Farmer’s market where we grabbed some breakfast to share. Then we did a little shopping on the main drag. We even went in to a couple jewelry shops to try and find unique wedding bands for us :-D
All in all, Tauranga was a nice little ocean town where we were able to relax and unwind before our next stop…
ROTORUA!
