Half a Dozen Memories: Tauranga

Hi all! I completely intended to have this post up last week...but circumstances were what they were and I couldn't. So! A quick update. This past weekend, I moved to a new house with my host family. You can imagine last week was busy with packing and cleaning and more packing...😶 We officially moved on Saturday - it took pretty much the whole day - and by 8:00 p.m. I was exhausted! We're still figuring out where to put everything and I still have a couple of boxes to unpack in my room, but for the most part we're settled. The good news? My room is bigger than my previous one! The bad news? My room was actually intended to be a lounge room, so there are two sets of doors with windows. Until we can get curtains, I have blankets hanging over the doors for privacy!😂 Ok. Enough of that...let's get to the good stuff!

The week of glowworm kayaking, Annika had texted me wondering if I wanted to do something the next weekend since she had that Friday (August 10th) off. I was like, "Why not?" and took the Friday off as well so we had a three day weekend! But, I'm getting ahead of myself.

First things first...

RECAP
Week 1: Raglan & Rotorua
Week 2: Skytower & Newmarket
Week 3: Hunua Falls, One Tree Hill, & Takapuna Escape Rooms
Week 4: Glowworm Kayaking

Right. Where was I? Oh yes - three day weekend. I didn't really have an idea of where to go, but Annika came up with the idea of going to Tauranga to climb Mount Maunganui (among other things). With the location decided, I booked our Airbnb room and we were set! Since we had three days of exploring, there will be a few more pictures in this blog...but don't worry. I'll try to control myself. 😉 Here's Week 5: Tauranga.

FRIDAY, AUGUST 10TH
Annika had to work until 9:00 a.m. and then she was free to come pick me up. The weather was perfect for traveling. The time flew by until we stopped at Omokoroa (which was actually quite close to Tauranga). Here, we stretched our legs and ate lunch while looking over the water. After lunch, we decided to go geocaching since we had plenty of time before going to our house. The first cache brought us to a place called...Walnut Grove! All of you who know Little House on the Prairie will appreciate this location! We made the find and I, of course, had to take a picture "in" Walnut Grove.

View while we were eating lunch.

Walnut Grove!

We headed to the next cache, as it was close by. Unfortunately, the area where we needed to go search was blocked off due to construction. Instead of leaving, we walked along the edge of the bank, which looked over the ocean, to a nearby land bridge. The path was behind people's homes, so we felt like we were intruding on their backyards...but don't worry; we weren't! Partway into our walk, we discovered that the path led by Walnut Grove - just on the opposite side of where we found the cache. When we got to the end of the path and looked down, we saw the land bridge (it was small) but we didn't see a way to get down. After walking around a bit more, we decided to go back to our vehicle. However, I was determined to get down, so we searched for a path and after a bit of walking back and forth (we were sure this couple sitting on a bench thought we were strange😁), we found a path to the water! Along the way, we saw unique trees and some overall beautiful views. Like I mentioned earlier, the bridge was small, but we took our pictures and walked around it since it took so much time to actually get there! Between the time we went to the bridge and when we headed back, the tide had risen, but we were able to walk to the path just fine. Before officially leaving Omokoroa, we stopped for one more cache and then drove to Tauranga.

 The Land Bridge!

The sweet sideways growing tree.

Finally by the Land Bridge.

The last find we did in Omokoroa.

We made it to our Airbnb house and settled in before figuring out our plan for the rest of the day. Remember, this was back in August, so the sun set quite early. Annika suggested doing an escape room in the evening - naturally I agreed! With our limited daylight, we went into Tauranga to walk around and look at some of the street art. While we were at it, we also tried to find a cache, but with no luck (we think it was actually missing). Soon, it was time to go do our escape room - the guy actually called Annika to confirm because we had also scheduled a room for the next day...we might have a problem.😂 The room we did was the "Mad Scientist" room and it was probably the most difficult one due to all of the puzzles and locks we had to complete! I'll just say I started tied to a chair with a sheet over me...blindfolded. It was great! We successfully escaped with only a couple of hints.

Tauranga street art.

Beautiful sunset.

We did it!

After escaping, we were starving. There was a Mexican restaurant nearby that smelled delicious...so inside we went. The last time I had had Mexican in NZ was on Cinco de Mayo and it was just okay. This food was WAY better and had more flavor - especially the guacamole! Even though we both finished our dinner, we still had room for a little dessert. 😉 Chocolate cake and ice cream topped off the perfect meal. At this point, we called it a night and headed back to our room for the rest of the evening. 

 Dinner was on point.

SATURDAY, AUGUST 11TH

We got ready for the day and headed to a Farmer's Market in a park. However, the market was only a couple of art stands, so we walked on looking for a place to have breakfast. The EightyEight Cafe was where we ended up and it turned out to be a great choice. I had my usual meal (scrambled eggs with toast), but it also came with bacon and tomatoes AND it was cheaper than what I usually pay in the Auckland area...a win, win, win!

Oh. I forgot to mention they gave me a TON of eggs.

Street art near the cafe.

Our first post breakfast activity was...geocaching! There was a small "park" nearby where the cache was hidden. Did I mention the weather was gorgeous?? With a successful first find of the day, we headed off to Mt. Maungan...I mean Mt. Maunganui. Annika's GPS always pronounced it wrong throughout the whole weekend. We got a kick out of it at least! Since the weather was lovely, parking was difficult to find near the beach. Thankfully, we only had to drive around a couple of times before we found a spot. A quick walk to the base of the mount and we began our hike to the top...after another geocache find of course. This one was hidden in sort of water hose. Clever!

 Find #1 of the day.

And #2. I'm sure we looked a bit strange to walkers passing by as we were behind a fence and looking in the trees!

The hiking signs said it would only take us around 45 minutes to an hour to get to the top (excluding picture breaks, obviously). We took our time and casually walked the path. There were plenty of sheep, trees, and rocks to see as well as the incredible view of the ocean. Because the weather was so lovely, there were plenty of people walking and running up and down Mt. Maunganui. If this is New Zealand's winter, I think I can handle it!

Behind me, in the distance, is Omokoroa!

View from the top looking over Tauranga and the sea.

 Thanks stranger for taking our picture!

Sitting on a rock...admiring the view.

We had to take a picture here because it was the same spot from a website we had looked at earlier.

Once we had taken our pictures at the top and spent time admiring the view, we started heading back down. We went a different way in order to find a geocache. The cache was near some cute sheep and it only took a few minutes to find (partly due to the GPS signal and partly due to other people walking by). Back at the bottom, we grabbed some lunch at Copenhagen Cones. That's right people! We had ICE CREAM for lunch - because we could. 🍦

 Hey look! I'm holding a sheep.

Cache #3.

The art in Tauranga is so amazing!

Lunch! You're looking at 2.5 scoops of ice cream covered with whipped cream and chocolate sauce. 😄

We ate our lunch as we walked toward Leisure Island - a small island connected to the beach by a footbridge. It was a short walk to the end where there was supposedly a blowhole. Maybe we saw it....maybe we didn't. I'm not entirely sure! There were amazing rocks we sat on to just admire the nature surrounding us. We still had a lot we wanted to accomplish during the day, so we didn't linger too long on the island. I wanted to walk barefoot on the beach and feel the water. Yup. Still freezing! I found a pretty shell I have now been using as a ring dish in my room.

Just thought I'd grab a different perspective of Mt. Maunganui.

View from the rocks.

Forever jumping for joy in this country.

Our next stop was back at the street art we saw the day before...but just for a minute. There was a bridge across the water where a cache was hidden, but we ran into a couple of problems and were ultimately unable to make the find. First, there were too many people walking and fishing on the bridge. Second, we had some unwanted attention from a couple of fisherman so we just left. 🤷 Have no fear! We scored 3 more caches before we had to be at our escape room appointment.

#4. #5 was also this small and #6 was the size of a small prescription pill bottle.

I loved this tree...such a great view against the sky!

One of our favorite street art finds.

The escape room theme we had chosen for today was...."The Shire"! I was BEYOND excited for this one! Again, we went in blindfolded but neither of us were tied to anything this time. 😊 There was one specific puzzle we struggled to solve, but in the end we triumphed over Mt. Doom. 

 Some more incredible art.

Sunset.

Behind this door is another land... 😉

The end of the night consisted of dinner at a cute Italian restaurant and relaxing back at our Airbnb. We had to walk a little bit to get to the restaurant, but the exercise felt great after eating our entire meal!

 Dinner #2 in Tauranga.

SUNDAY, AUGUST 12TH

We packed up and headed into Tauranga for breakfast before hitting the road back to Auckland. First, we tried to go to the Farmer's Market again in hopes of buying a fresh breakfast. While there were actually produce stands this time, it was still small with not many options. Instead, we bought pancakes at The Bach Cafe to satisfy our morning sweet tooth.

Of course we weren't heading directly back to Auckland - it was another beautiful day! First up? McLaren Falls. Part of the fun of traveling in New Zealand is the drive to get where you want to go. The roads are usually curvy and the views are beautiful and so green! We entered McLaren Falls Park and followed the signs to the waterfall. A short walk brought us to the falls where, thankfully, the only people there were just leaving. While not the largest falls I've seen here, I still enjoyed listening to the water and trying out my slow-mo video app on my phone!

 Remember to look up once in awhile.

McLaren Falls.

The falls in slow-mo.

The trail to the falls was a loop trail, so we were able to see different things on our way back. For example, I found some glowworms! While we didn't see their glow due to the daylight, I can imagine how beautiful the walk must be at night. A quick check showed us there was a geocache nearby. Once we got on the right trail, a couple minutes of looking turned up the cache under a walkway. A short ride up a hill and along another road brought us to beautiful Lake McLaren and a trail to Pine Knoll Lookout. We weren't sure how long the hike to the lookout was, but thankfully it wasn't too long. The panoramic view from the lookout was worth the walk, let me tell you! 

Can you see the glowworms? They're the "clear/white" things hanging from the rocks.

😍😍😍

View from Pine Knoll Lookout.

 Annika and I took this picture ourselves...nifty huh?

Handstand in McLaren Falls Park? Check!

The park was so peaceful and full of the smells and colors of fall (yes I realize it looks like the trees are all green, but there were some fallen leaves on the ground!). I was reminded of Maplewood State Park - in spite of the lack of maple trees. Even though there was more to see, we had to get going. Before leaving the park, we stopped once more near the entrance/exit to stand on a bridge and climb rocks. The massive rocks made for some pretty easy climbing and hopping!

 Annika has some sweet photography skills!

I loved sitting on that rock and just looking around me. Perspective.

Don't get distracted by these gorgeous faces...check out the mirrored pool behind us!

View of the rocks from the bridge. The most impressive thing about this picture is the fact there aren't any people in it...oh the struggle sometimes!

Another short 30 minute drive brought us to Matamata. Why stop in Matamata you ask? Well, it's quite close to Hobbiton and there were a couple LOTR related things to see there, so...😉 Oh! And there was a geocache nearby - although it did take a bit longer than we thought to get there (because we chose to walk). We did find and sign the cache (yay us!) before leaving Matamata.

 My future home will have a circle door.

You can't tell...but I'm sitting on a Gandalf seat!

 A little worse for the wear, but still a cache!

We didn't really stop for lunch, but instead ate crackers and peanut butter. Hey. We got our protein at least! Our final stop before heading back to Auckland was in Paeroa - home of the largest L&P bottle in the world! If you remember L&P from one of my first blogs, it's a soda produced in New Zealand that tastes sort of similar to Sprite...but not really. 😏 I didn't even know about this feature in Paeroa until Annika brought it up - and since it was sort of on our way...we had to go! Remember earlier how I said driving in New Zealand is fun because of the scenery and curvy roads? Well we ended up driving on an uncharacteristically straight road at one point on our journey to Paeroa. Here's picture evidence!

Look how straight it is!😱

Before going to the bottle, Annika and I had to do the very tourist thing and go buy an L&P drink so we could drink L&P by the largest L&P bottle. Naturally. We spent some time by the bottle trying to get our perfect pictures without anyone else in them. There were a couple cute kids chasing each other around, so it took a few tries! With our L&P in hand, we began the final leg of the trip to Auckland.

Yeah, it was a pretty large bottle.

Cheers!

Unfortunately, we were driving back around rush hour time...but our delay wasn't too bad! And we were able to have some great sunset views over Auckland. Annika dropped me off and she continued on her way north to her house. It was a successful 3-day weekend full of delicious food, geocaching, driving, hiking, friendship, and beautiful new sights. I can't wait for our next adventure!

Sunset driving into Auckland.

Here's the general route we took over the weekend.

Week 5 = DONE! Week 6 - the final post in this mini series - coming to you SOON!