Day 11: Mount Maunganui & Tauranga, NZ

Let’s play a game of charades. I’m thinking of a word, 2 syllables.

The word is often written with a number after it; a number between 18 and 20.

Give that some thought and Ill come back to it later.

Today we are in Mount Maunganui and Tauranga, and it was a warm, sunny, beautiful day with a gentle cool breeze. A “this is what it’s going to be like in Heaven” kinda day. The weather site said that we would need one layer and no wind jackets, and it was soooo correct.

Perfect day in paradise. Particularly after cold and windy Wellington, and the “severe weather system” that stopped us from going into Napier.

The Port of Tauranga is next to Mount Maunganui, and the township of Tauranga (population 140,000) is about 20 minutes down the road … and like all townships of approx 140,000 on a Saturday we were told to expect that everything would be closed.

We had our usual light breakfast from the International Cafe, plus coffee, and then we jumped ship and went exploring.

Another NZ friendly town, with lots of volunteers everywhere giving helpful advice and directions, and “Welcome Grand Princess” signs about the place.

The first thing that we found when we stepped off the ship, conveniently located in a little park right beside the wharf was … markets. Markets are a girl’s best friend.

We had a browse around but didn’t see anything for sale that:

We wanted;
We could fit in our suitcases; or
We could smuggle onboard without fear of an invasive full-body cavity search looking for more ~~contraband~~ souvenirs.

Funny how some things are universal … like markets. The same all over the world!

We headed out on a walk to Mount Maunganui to see the view of this lovely beach we have heard about. There was some very low cloud so we couldn’t see much unfortunately, so time for ”Plan B”.

So instead we decided to catch a local bus down to the Bayfair Shopping Centre, because there is a KMart there. That was the logic, anyway.

We wandered the shops and “bought some stuff we needed” (code for “we bought stuff that we didn’t really need”) and decided we didn’t want or feel like hot coffee.

Now there is no need to panic. I know in previous blogs I have been very clear that if you ever hear me order decaf coffee, that it is code that I have been kidnapped and you should call the police.

But the weather was warm, the sun was shining, the people were friendly, and life was good … we thought we would get something cold like an iced coffee frappe.

McDonalds at the Bayfair shopping centre does not have a McCafe – Philistines that they are – so they have nothing remotely like an iced coffee frappe.

Next option was Starbucks. After waiting in line for about 10 minutes and having placed (but not paid for) my order, I was informed that “there was a minimum 20-30 minute delay for all drinks” … so I moved on again.

It shouldn’t be this hard!

Final option was the Coffee Club. They have a range of frappe options, all with multiple ingredients.

Cookies and cream peppermint frappe.

Mocha and whipped cream frappe.

Chocolate chip and white chocolate frappe.

I managed to broker a deal with the lovely girl behind the counter to get an Iced Coffee and Caramel frappe without the caramel. She looked at me (and treated me) like I had just landed from outer space and she had never heard such nonsense before, but she complied.

While we waited, and with the benefit of 4G via our NZ SIM card, we did some WhatsApp calls to the grandkids and got our emotional tanks topped up.

After shopping we went back to the bus stop and waited to go back to Mount Maunganui and the Grand Princess.

Sun shining, birds singing, warm weather and potty mouthed teenagers and we could have been back on holidays at the Gold Coast.

Our bus driver for the trip back was an older, Asian lady who didn’t believe in the “squeeze the accelerator and hold it steady to give your passengers a comfortable trip home” approach to driving a bus. No, she was a subscriber to the “push hard and release the accelerator, push and release, push and release” approach which made her passengers resemble a bunch of bobble-heads as the bus continuously lurched backwards and forwards, and likely used 30% more fuel than it should.

We got back to Mount Maunganui with our heads still attached, took a look at the beach as the fog had lifted by now, and then walked back down a central street towards the cruise ship, checking out souvenir shops along the way.

Back on the ship for lunch, drop off all of our purchases, and into shorts for another quick walk around Mount Maunganui to buy an ice-cream.

MBW has it in her mind that she needs to consume a feijoa-flavoured ice-cream for reasons that I don’t entirely understand, but who am I to stand in the way of this need?

We got ice cream (albeit not feijoa, sadly) and then browsed a couple of second-hand shops to see if we could find some NZ bargains to take home with us. I mean, we regularly take other people’s stuff home from Op Shops – why not another country’s stuff?

Dinner in Botticelli again and a “Best of Britain” show in the Princess Theatre that was very good.