Mount Maunganui

July 24, 2011

I left Auckland yesterday and came to Tauranga in the Bay of Plenty.  Penny said I would like it and I do!  It’s much larger than I thought it would be.  It has a huge, and beautiful downtown area and my hostel is right in the thick of it.  It’s a nice, clean hostel.  

After checking in I walked forever to the supermarket and The Warehouse.  I bought a DVD with three movies on it to keep me entertained and picked up some groceries as well.  Tim Tams two for $5!  

This morning I went to the I-site and booked a trip to White Island for Monday.  White Island is the most active volcano in New Zealand.  It’s an island about six hours off the coast.  I also found a church to go to.  It was a lovely little Presbyterian church that’s in the midst of a remodel.  I sat next to a sweet woman, Marguerite.  

After church I went to the Baby Factory, a kind of outlet store for all things baby. With all the babies coming into my life I need to be prepared!  I bought a few things for my new babies.  I’m definitely in a spend money on gifts mode.  I’m starting to realize that I only have a short amount of time left here, so I need to get my souvenir shopping done.  There are so many things I want to buy for others and even more I want to buy for myself.  I think I want to take as much of Kiwi life back with me!

In the afternoon I caught the bus to Mount Maunganui.  This is a town right on a peninnsula with a big, steep hill at the end called Mount Maunganui.  I started by walking to the very top and boy, was it difficult!  The woman at the I-site had told me it would be steep, but I didn’t really think it would be that hard.  Well, it was!  But once I got to the top it was so worth it because the views were incredible.  There were vistas of the sea, other smaller islands, the beach, the surfers, boats, and peninsulas.  The weather was beautiful too.

Once I scaled the top and made my descent, I trekked around the mount.  Then I walked back to the bus stop.  On my way I came across an ice cream truck called Mr. Whippy’s.  Now Penny and Mark told me they had the best ice cream.  So I decided I’d better try.  The man in the truck has been selling ice cream cones in this spot for twenty five years!  I ordered a double dipped.  it’s a cone with two soft-serve peaks of ice cream dunked in chocolate.  The chocolate gets hard, but underneath is the softest, smoothest ice cream I have ever had in my life.  It was more like eating whipped cream than like eating ice cream.  That’s how light it was!  All in all, Mount Maunganui definitely exceeded my expectations.  I’m really glad I came out here and didn’t miss the opportunity to see more of New Zealand!