Feb 14

Woke up in Tauranga ready to hike Mt Maunganui. While I ate breakfast, Lydia went for a run on the amazing beach just steps away from our campsite. Lydia has run on a lot of beaches, but this one was special – flat, firm and fast…and it goes on for many kilometers. Eventually she returned to camp and we packed up the van and headed to the hike. Mt Maunganui is a small volcanic cone (dormant) that rises up 300 meters over the town of Tauranga. It was an easy hike, you basically cross the street from a coffee shop and start climbing! There are a number of trails to choose from and we enjoyed the views as we ascended the mountain. Lots of people out on the trails – it’s obviously a very popular thing to do when visiting Tauranga. The day was perfect – a bit of cloud so we didn’t bake and a nice breeze to keep us dry-ish. Spent a couple of hours tramping around the mountain and then descended to the beach and back into town. We had a few errands to do in preparation for our weekend in Tongariro National park and an attempt at the Tongariro Alpine crossing. We had no sooner finished our shopping when we received a call from Trish who informed us that the visit to Tongariro had to be postponed as there had been a death on trail the previous day. There is a tradition when someone dies on the Tongariro trail, the park closes the trail for three days as show of respect for the loss of life. Of course we were disappointed, but not deterred! We consulted our maps and our loose itinerary and decided to head further east along the cost to the town of Whakatane – which is supposed to be one of the sunniest areas of New Zealand and the beach is massive. We had an easy drive down from Tauranga and arrived around 4 pm and found a great campsite right on the beach. It’s a good thing we arrived when we did as the sites continued to fill as the weekend campers made their way to this amazing location just east of town. As it is Valentines day – we had a relaxing walk on the beach and then prepared a delicious meal followed by chocolate covered macadamia nuts – those didn’t last long!

Tauranga from the summit of Mt Maunganui

Tauranga harbor

View from Mt Maunganui

 

View from Mt Maunganui

View from Mt Maunganui

 

View from Mt Maunganui

Meal prep in the van