New Zealand: traveler’s paradise…

We are beginning a three-day stay in New Zealand. This time we will visit three cities on the North Island. We were fortunate to have visited NZ several years ago and had two wonderful weeks traveling from Milford Sound in the south island to Bay of Islands in the north island. . This year’s stay is much shorter, but still, any time you can get in NZ is good time.

This time around we will be in Tauranga, Auckland, and Bay of Islands. Yesterday, Saturday, was Waitangi (wye-tang-ee) Day. Waitangi Day celebrates the signing of the treaty that permitted the English explorers to settle in NZ. Here’s another interesting factoid for your Jeopardy! notebook: the Maori of New Zealand are the only indigenous people that were never conquered by colonialist nations. They signed the Waitangi Treaty in the 18th Century and have been at peace ever since. Do not believe that the Maori “gave up.” They are among the fiercest warriors in the world and could easily have defeated any invading force at the time, but their leaders believed that the treaty would guarantee their lands and customs. They were correct. The Maori and the Kiwis today not only live as peaceful neighbors, but many Kiwis have adopted much of the Maori culture and language in their everyday goings-on. As an aside, since this is Waitangi Day weekend, Tauranga and Auckland should be very lively.

Sunday we are docked in Tauranga, NZ’s third largest city. The Port of Tauranga is being improved and will soon be one of the largest ports in the south Pacific. Currently, it appears to be as large, if not slightly larger, than Port Everglades.

One thing that immediately strikes you about landing in this busy industrial port is that it is clean. So clean that you begin to wonder if there is any activity here. Then you see the cranes, the cargo ships, and best of all, the pleasure boats. They all share the harbor and there is nothing out of place. You get the feeling that if someone dropped a piece of rubbish and didn’t pick it up, they would be immediately ostracized and given a good tongue-lashing for their transgression.

Since Tauranga is the gateway to one of the north island’s tourist hotspots – Rotorua (roto-roo-ah) and the Gates of Hell – and a somewhat lesser attraction, but almost as popular, that being “Hobbiton.” Hobbiton is the leftover set and back lot from the Peter Jackson film adaptations of the “Lord of the Rings” and the “Hobbit.” Many of our fellow passengers are excited about getting to see the actual sets and the backstage stuff. I must admit that getting a backstage tour is a lot of fun and we like sort of stuff, but we just can’t get our heads around the hoopla that accompanies Hobbition. Several years sago during our NZ tour we stopped in Taurange, boarded a bus, and whisked off to Rotorua. That was a terrific, but we didn’t want to do it again so soon.

Soooo…we opted to take it easy and just ramble around the local town area. It turned out to be a good decision. The port of Tauranga for cruise ships is actually across the harbor in Mount Maunganui (mon-gan-oo-ee). Mount Maunganui is to Tauranga as Naples is to Fort Myers – except a lot closer physically (about 2 miles apart). As we docked, we could see both the downtown area and the beaches. Mount Manganui is the area that a lot of Kiwis go to for their holidays (what we call vacations). There are a lot of small shops, restaurants, and second homes.

Two shots along Maunganui Road, the main pedestrian area of Maunganui. Lots of boutiques, restaurants, shops, etc.

We walked off the ship, across the dock, out the main gate, and were right in the middle of Manganui (for ease of typing, I am dropping the “Mount” at this point). We strolled down the main street, through a Sunday Farmer’s Market, over two blocks to the beach on the Pacific Ocean side. We walked along the beach boardwalk for a few blocks watching the surfers, the vollyballers, the families with what looked like tons of kids, and turned to the bay side.

Maunganui beach. Note the surf directly in from the Pacific Ocean.

Two more shots along the beach.

The boardwalk and people watching were just as fascinating – especially since the water on the bay side is only about knee-deep and it makes it easy for many learning to swim. Great fun!

These three shots are of the bay side of Mauanganui.

After about a two-hour stroll we returned to the ship for a light lunch and then decided to see what Tauranga itself looked like. We hopped on the ship’s shuttle and after a ten-minute ride we  were dropped off in the middle of downtown Tauranga. When I said that Tauranga is to Maunganui as Fort Myers is to Naples, I meant that where Manganui has a lively, vibrant feel, Tauranga is sleepy in comparison. After only about a half-hour walk around, including a ten-minute stop in a schlocky souvenir shop, we hopped back on the shuttle and returned to the ship to regroup, rest up, and plan for tomorrow in Auckland.

The main pedestrian shopping/restaurant street in Tauranga.

We would definitely return to Manganui – Tauranga, not so much – and probably use our time to look a little further into what the area has to offer. Now we are off the Auckland…