Today, apart from being Chinese New Year, would be a transition day with us collecting our rental car and then driving to Tauranga…
Elaine ensured we were packed, fed and watered then drove us to the airport to collect our hire car, arriving promptly at 9 am, despite a wee hold up…
… however, no sign at all of Mr Hertz😠.
After spending the best part of an hour calling, emailing, texting and social messaging Hertz, all to no avail, Mr Hertz casually walked in, ignoring the steam coming out of all our ears…
We duly did all the paperwork, said farewell to Elaine and collected our wee SUV – except someone at Hertz had “upgraded” us to the form of transport most favoured by the Kiwis; clearly they had noted how I was dressed and wanted me to blend in…😉
Julie’s initial reaction was, to put it mildly, not positive when being told “It’s a Ute, mate😊🇳🇿” but finally succumbed after being promised we could swap it out at Auckland Airport; meantime, I thought it would be ideal😉
Fortunately, after our first coffee stop in Wellsford, she decided it “would do”.
Personally, I think the cheerful images of a specialist South African shop combined with a classic NZ steak and cheese pie helped…
After by-passing Auckland we left State Highway 1 to take State Highway 2 east towards Tauranga.
The journey itself was of great contrast, initially passing through wide, flat plains with arrow straight roads, then negotiating our way past steep sided cliffs of rainforest along sharply twisted roads as blue skies turned, ominously so, to grey…
However, we did manage a 2nd stop in the sunshine…in a sports bar🏉😉
The various towns and villages we passed through had some distinctive buildings and more examples of the street art we have come to admire…
Approaching Tauranga we got our first glimpse of its most famous landmark, Mount Maunganui, an extinct volcano sitting at one of the 2 entrances to the large harbour of this port city…
The city has expanded rapidly over the last few years, but, despite that, I felt a strange connection to one of its principal suburbs…☺️
For accommodation we had decided to “go native” and rent a bach (pronounced batch..) for one night…
Situated c.2 km from Mount Maunganui and c.500 m from a hugely popular surf beach, our 6m x 3m cabin had a king size bed, kitchenette, en suite shower room, air con, flat screen TV and deck!
What’s not to like?.😎
After getting some provisions we checked out the surf beach and got, as a bonus, a closer view of “The Mount” too…
Convinced we had more to see the next day we headed back to our 5 star cabin…
As we strolled through the streets, where, like most of NZ, every house is different, I couldn’t help but notice just how much they can act8ually differ in scale, design , condition etc.
e.g the next 4 images are of houses all within a 20 m radius of the centre of the road on which they are all located …🤔
Timber is abundant in NZ, so it’s hardly surprising it’s the go-to material of choice…
Back at our bach a wee snack was followed by watching the excellent movie Denial (about a Holocaust denier)…before I turned to updating this blog 😉
Thanks for reading this far – whoever you are – and please feel free to share the link☺️
BTDU 