Mount Maunganui and its namesake beach are located on the eastern coast of New Zealand – a little over an hour away from Rotorua. We left our campground in Rotorua in the morning after learning how to dump the grey water and refill the van with fresh water. All the water was drinkable in New Zealand, which was a nice change from some of our previous destinations. It was a rainy day, so we did some souvenir shopping in downtown Rotorua before leaving town. The maple leaves were beginning to turn in the town center, as it was the beginning of fall there. Prices were surprisingly good with t-shirts costing $10 to $15. It does not seem that inflation has hit New Zealand as hard as in the US. It also didn’t hurt that the dollar is strong now compared to most other currencies.
The road to the coast went through a lush, rugged mountain range. Lots of switchbacks, dramatic gorges and interesting vistas – despite the rain. Our destination was on the coast of the city of Tauranga. Mount Maunganui is a neat little round mountain that punctuates the end of a narrow peninsula. Our campground was nestled at the foot of the mountain at the end of the road. The nice lady checking us in gave us a great space for our campervan overlooking the beach and the sea. We cooked a nice meal in the van with butternut squash and a brown butter sage sauce (we had snagged some fresh sage from the previous campground herb garden). We had a spectacular view right out of our rear window, which was fun to wake up to seeing the sunrise in front of us.
The peninsula featured beaches on both sides – one facing the ocean with waves good for learning to surf, and the other on the bay side that was calm and good for swimming. A boardwalk went along the ocean beach, past our camper and then to the mountain where there were trails that went completely around the mountain and others that went to the top. This was a very popular place for locals to walk – especially on the weekends when we were there. Everyone seemed so energetic, happy and fit. We were impressed that even young pre-schoolers were walking up the mountain with their families and didn’t seem to get tired or complain. The scenery was great, and I can see why the locals took advantage of the trails. You could walk around the mountain in as little as 45 minutes on a relatively flat trail, and to the 830 foot top in 40 minutes on one of several steep trails. You would be in great health if you walked or jogged on these trails everyday – especially the ones to the summit.
We took the trail around the mountain on our first day. There were beautiful trees shading the trail, and the view constantly changed as you walked around the periphery. We started in the ocean side by our camper and finished on the bay side on some smooth beaches near the docks. Container ships and even cruise ships docked there in the calm waters.
We went swimming in the ocean that afternoon, getting tossed about by the waves. The water was cool, but tolerable. It was a popular spot to surf and because there weren’t any rocks or coral reefs, it seemed like a pretty safe place to learn. That evening we had tasty tarakihi fish fillets (a unique local fish) at one of the many restaurants in town, then had some gelato by the beach on our way back to our camper. Good living!
On our second morning we trekked to the summit of Mount Maunganui. This was a steep walk with lots of stairs, but not too hard. We watched a three or four year old girl do the entire walk with her mom in flip flops – and she was still running around happily when they got back down.
After some breakfast in the camper, we walked along the beach, stopping for some coffee along the way. There was a beach volleyball competition going on that we watched for a while. A UV ray indicator was installed here to guide you on how much sun protection you needed. There is a hole in the ozone layer above New Zealand making the UV rays particularly severe. Next we walked out to a little rocky island that was connected to the beach. It provided nice views back to the beach and Mount Maunganui.
We picked up lunch at a little seafood counter. We chose some local mussels called kutai, some calamari rings from an arrow squid, and some fillets of another local fish called hoki. They fried this all up with some French fries and wrapped it all in newspaper. We took this to a park by the beach where there was a band playing. We sat on the terraced hillside and enjoyed one of our yummiest meals of the trip – with the best views possible.
After lunch we went to the rocky shore near the mountain and explored the rocks, shells and tide pools. That evening we went to a hot water park next to our campground. They had many heated pools of different temperatures you could sit or swim in. The pools were unique in that they were filled with filtered salt water from the bay, which were heated by the geothermal springs deep underground. For supper we used up the food we had left to create our final camping meal.
The next day we packed everything up and drove about three hours to Auckland to return the campervan and catch our next flight to Tahiti. We took a different route and saw more rolling hills and farmland. We really enjoyed the natural beauty of New Zealand, and seeing it by campervan worked out great for us. It was nice to drive places during the day and always have all your stuff with you. It was also nice to have the flexibility to go where you wanted when you wanted. We were told that the South Island has even more incredible nature to see, so we will keep that on our list for future travel.
Kia ora, Aotearoa! (Māori for thank you, New Zealand, land of the long white cloud.) Until next time…
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