Tauranga, Part 2
Back online! Some of us are shopping (myself included), some of us are walking the beach... but I wanted to take a moment and say what I keep forgetting to say:
- When we said "windy in wellington", we didn't know how truly windy it was! Apparently, we were apart of a every-150-years storm.
- While aboard our yacht, we had to fill out census forms, as we are here during their 10-year census take. We are now a piece of NZ history!
Where did I leave off? Oh, yes, we were hobbling along a gravelly, windy road atop a mountain with barely any gas or air in our tires. When we set off in the morning, we had no idea we were driving into the middle of nowhere. We affectionately called our drive into "nowhere" our drive into middle earth. We eventually happened upon a general store and paid upwards of $13 for a pop & some chips! The lady who ran the store felt sorry for us after we told her that we were almost out of gas! She asked to see our gas gauge, and after seeing that we had 1/8 tank left she assured us that we would be fine. Then she looked at our other vehicle and admonished us to be careful with the tires! Turns out - she had never seen Americans before! Yep. That is how remote of an area we were in. Who knew that Americans could still be appreciated novelties?
Six hours after our journey began, and several pit-stops-in-the-woods later, we emerged from "middle earth" and saw a concrete road again. We were in Tauranga about two hours after that. Our lodging last night was neither mansion or yacht, but it was nice all the same. It was called the Calais Mount Resort. We had rented (2) two-bedroom apartments with a view of the beach and Mt. Manganui. We girls had a balcony running the full length of our aparment. It was a lovely place for girly time after the sun went down.
After we washed up a bit, we headed downtown to eat dinner (having skipped lunch in Middle Earth). Most of us had our first taste of Turkish food at Zeytin's, a downtown establishment. Dave even had bananas on his pizza! It was weird, but very good. The rest of us weren't as adventerous and ended up with Iskender meals. We were about a ten minute walk from a bustling downtown area. After dinner, we had our first NZ ice-cream and then headed to the "hot pools". For $5 NZ each, we had our pick of hot tubs, baths and pools... all saltwater. We stayed there until closing. It was practically chilly compared to the HOT HOT HOT Polynesian spas.
This morning - Kate, Dave, Mark & Nadine headed up Mt. Maunganui for pics of the sunrise. It was a beautiful hike. Josh took a run by the water, I slept in and KT enjoyed some moments of solitude our our deck. We met up for breakfast, and are now milling about town shopping for souveniers and the like.
Around 2pm, we'll head to Hamilton. There, we'll meet up with Nadine's mum and watch a rugby game. It is apparently a very big game, and people are jealous that we have tickets. Dinner & rugby in Hamilton and then we're OFF to spend our last two full days in Auckland.
Tomorrow morning brings hiking in the Waitakere Ranges, shopping in downtown Auckland. Sunday will bring Blackwater Rafting, a visit to a church (did I mention we met someone on the plane who invited us to his church) and then a flight home.
I'm off to shop! Everyone sends their love. Can't wait to upload the pics - we'll try to do that in Auckland!
love to you again,
kendra & crew
- When we said "windy in wellington", we didn't know how truly windy it was! Apparently, we were apart of a every-150-years storm.
- While aboard our yacht, we had to fill out census forms, as we are here during their 10-year census take. We are now a piece of NZ history!
Where did I leave off? Oh, yes, we were hobbling along a gravelly, windy road atop a mountain with barely any gas or air in our tires. When we set off in the morning, we had no idea we were driving into the middle of nowhere. We affectionately called our drive into "nowhere" our drive into middle earth. We eventually happened upon a general store and paid upwards of $13 for a pop & some chips! The lady who ran the store felt sorry for us after we told her that we were almost out of gas! She asked to see our gas gauge, and after seeing that we had 1/8 tank left she assured us that we would be fine. Then she looked at our other vehicle and admonished us to be careful with the tires! Turns out - she had never seen Americans before! Yep. That is how remote of an area we were in. Who knew that Americans could still be appreciated novelties?
Six hours after our journey began, and several pit-stops-in-the-woods later, we emerged from "middle earth" and saw a concrete road again. We were in Tauranga about two hours after that. Our lodging last night was neither mansion or yacht, but it was nice all the same. It was called the Calais Mount Resort. We had rented (2) two-bedroom apartments with a view of the beach and Mt. Manganui. We girls had a balcony running the full length of our aparment. It was a lovely place for girly time after the sun went down.
After we washed up a bit, we headed downtown to eat dinner (having skipped lunch in Middle Earth). Most of us had our first taste of Turkish food at Zeytin's, a downtown establishment. Dave even had bananas on his pizza! It was weird, but very good. The rest of us weren't as adventerous and ended up with Iskender meals. We were about a ten minute walk from a bustling downtown area. After dinner, we had our first NZ ice-cream and then headed to the "hot pools". For $5 NZ each, we had our pick of hot tubs, baths and pools... all saltwater. We stayed there until closing. It was practically chilly compared to the HOT HOT HOT Polynesian spas.
This morning - Kate, Dave, Mark & Nadine headed up Mt. Maunganui for pics of the sunrise. It was a beautiful hike. Josh took a run by the water, I slept in and KT enjoyed some moments of solitude our our deck. We met up for breakfast, and are now milling about town shopping for souveniers and the like.
Around 2pm, we'll head to Hamilton. There, we'll meet up with Nadine's mum and watch a rugby game. It is apparently a very big game, and people are jealous that we have tickets. Dinner & rugby in Hamilton and then we're OFF to spend our last two full days in Auckland.
Tomorrow morning brings hiking in the Waitakere Ranges, shopping in downtown Auckland. Sunday will bring Blackwater Rafting, a visit to a church (did I mention we met someone on the plane who invited us to his church) and then a flight home.
I'm off to shop! Everyone sends their love. Can't wait to upload the pics - we'll try to do that in Auckland!
love to you again,
kendra & crew
posted by KM @ 11:58 AM
1 Comments:
At 2:37 PM,
Anonymous said…
What did you buy me?
Love,
Mom
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