February 27 – March 3, 2014
Our successful outing to Rotorua set the tone for this era of our lives in Tauranga. I wanted to keep up our momentum on road-tripping through New Zealand, but I needed to time our trips carefully, taking into account work we needed to do on the boat, weekends and school holidays, periods of less-than-ideal weather, and other assorted factors.
Thus began my new routine: Choose a next destination, figure out a good time for us to travel, check the weather forecast, look for good hotel deals, get the final OK from Rich, grab the credit card, then frantically rush to book the hotel deals before they disappeared (great rates go fast online).
We’d go on our trip and then return to rest up and regroup before heading off again days later. This routine went on the rest of the season, right up until we sailed off for the tropics. It was a bit hectic, but in the end we managed to accomplish everything I hoped we would.
Our next travel opportunity came up quickly. The logical destination after Rotorua was an area just south of it called Lake Taupo. From there, it’s not much further to one of New Zealand’s great national parks: Tongariro National Park. (I had hopes to fit in a detour to an area called Taranaki after that, but for the time I’d see how things unfolded with the first two.) I did my travel-planning routine and got a trip booked for the following week.
Between trips, we enjoyed our time in Tauranga. We had fun returning to our favorite eateries and finding new ones, but I also enjoyed cooking while having access to well-stocked grocery stores. We usually do laundry at marina machines, but here one of the tenants was making money doing laundry for others and had the machines filled much of the day. Thankfully we found a terrific laundry service that turned out to be cheaper than using the marina’s machines! We also did boat projects, including the yearly haul out, and pretty much lived a normal liveaboard life.
One place we liked to visit was the Mount, the striking cone mountain perched on the end of Mount Maunganui’s long peninsula. With several beautiful trails of varying difficulties, it’s a terrific place to walk and hike. We have a friend who had his boat anchored in Pilot Bay at the base of the Mount (an option for cruisers who don’t want to stay in a marina). Every morning he’d beach his dinghy and walk to the top of the Mount. As a result he got into the best shape he’d ever been in. (Below, the marina alternative, Pilot Bay).
I wish I could say we were as diligent, but we only went a few times. Still, we enjoyed the fresh air and beautiful scenery. The lucky residents of Tauranga have a wealth of choices for getting out into nature close to home. Below, a few photos of the lower (easiest) walk around the Mount (click any photo to enlarge). –Cyndi
And below are some panoramas – click the images for larger versions.
