Two Days in Tauranga

Joanie's Mt. Maunganui from the tip of my Pennisula

Day One – This morning we woke up to another beautiful, sunny day, and we decided to go for two walks.  Joanie decided she wanted to scale Mount Maunganui and I decided to explore the peninsula right near our apartment.  Both of us really enjoyed our walks and got some great pictures.

And that was about it for this day.  Well, not really but we did spend most of the day just hanging out at our apartment.  We did laundry, hung out on our courtyard, and in the afternoon went across the street to our beach and just hung out for about an hour.  A very relaxed, no sightseeing day.  (We definitely realize that when you’re on the road, away from home for over a month, you need these occasional down days.)

My Peninsula from the top of Joanie's Mountain

That evening we went out to dinner at a place here in town called Amphora.  Nice little restaurant where you can bring your own wine - which we did – a Chardonnay we bought at Omata.  (BYO wine, with little or no corkage fees are actually fairly common in Australia and New Zealand – which is very cool.)  We sat outside and had a pleasant dinner.  Joanie ordered a Filo Puff appetizer and I ordered the pesto scallops – which came with their pink/orange toungues attached.  I tasted them, not bad, but the texture didn’t work for me.  We then split an Lamb Shank entrée with a mint flavored gravy.  Not bad, but not great either.

The Beach Across the Street

A very relaxed Spring day in this New Zealand beach town.

The Kind of Day it Was!

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Gushing with Excitement!

Day Two – Today we drove to Rotorua – a town about one hour inland from Tauranga – famous for its geothermal activity and displays of Maori culture.  Our first stop was at a place called Te Puia – which combined both of these elements.  First was a “performance” where I thought we would get to see the famous Maori warriors and their tattooed faces doing their intense war dances, etc.  But instead, we got  a small “troupe” of singers and dancers, singing a few songs in the Maori language.  There was one song/dance where one guy was making the well-known bulging eyes, toungue sticking way out move – yippee – but basically the performance was very corny.

From Leaves

However, all was not lost.  Next we went on a guided tour of the grounds, where first we saw their Weaving School and Carving School.  Both of these were pretty cool, in that they are actual schools where they teach these cultural arts to a younger generation in hopes of keeping them alive.  And both were very interesting – Its amazing the things they can create from leaves and trees.

From Trees

Next was the highlight – a tour of the geothermal valley.  Here we actually left our guide and went on our own, and it was great.  Lots of steaming vents, many pools of boiling water, and one awesome boiling mud pool and gushing geyser.  And it was really cool how close we were able to get to the geyser – at one time the wind direction changed and we felt the mist from the geyser.  It was weird that the water was cool – we both thought it would be warmer.

Our last stop at Te Puia was in a Kiwi display.  These flightless, nocturnal birds are actually endangered and this display was inside a very dark building.  We barely saw a couple of them walking near the back of the display.  Bigger than I expected – and in the dark they actually looked like, and walked like chickens.

Our next stop in Rotorua was at the Polynesian Spa.  Here we planned on soaking in the mineral waters, and possibly getting a massage – very expensive here.  This place is listed in the Top 10 spas in the world by Conde Naste.  We thought it was way over commercialized, and they didn’t even offer therapeutic massages – just people rubbing mud gently on your backs – things like that.  So we bailed on this idea and ended up grabbing a bite to eat at a downtown Rotorua café…. Fish and chips for me and a turkey wrap for Joanie – nothing special.

The day came to an end with Joanie and I going to a place called Fernland in Tauranga – a place where you can soak in their mineral waters and get “real” massages.  It was a pretty nice place, and I had a pretty good massage, but unfortunately, Joanie didn’t couldn’t really rave about hers.  And the soaking was in a mini, not-jetted pool, inside our massage rooms – nothing special.

We then stopped at an Indian restaurant in Tauranga and Joanie and I shared an appetizer platter.  It was okay, but boy do we miss our Madhuban!  Actually, I think it’s that time in the trip when we start missing more about home.  But we’ll hang in there – after all – Tahiti is just a couple of days away!