The Bay of Plenty...

Around the Bay of Plenty - February 16 - 18

Our last "tiki tour" before heading off to Auckland was to the Bay of Plenty. We focused on the Mt. Manganui area, which is on the east coast, on the Pacific ocean.

The weather was spectacular - nice and warm, with a gentle breeze off the ocean. We spent two nights there, the first night on the bay side, and the second night, right across the street from the first picture, below. Fabulous! The Bay of Plenty is known for its beaches, and I was all about beach-combing and finding sea shells. We were particularly looking for scallop shells for Bryan, as he has them in his palm trees at Raglan.

We did a lot of walking, beach combing, hiking around Mt. Manganui, and soaking in the mineral pools. This area has a definite relaxing, vacation vibe, and is at the top of our "do again" list, and next time we'll stay longer!

This is what we could see from our motel room. The little island is a peninsula at low tide. We found lots of gorgeous scallop shells along the beach, which went for 3 or 4 miles. We loved it!

This is a picture of Mt. Manganui, at the mouth of the harbor. There's a hiking trail all around it - we hiked in one direction the first day and the other direction the second. The NZ'ers are very active people, and I was very impressed with all of their well posted hiking trails, wherever we went.

When we arrived in Mt. Manganui on Monday, the Princess Cruise Line Millenium was in. We were able to watch her set sail, a continuation of her Austrailia/New Zealand cruise. We would have liked to have been stowaways! :)

This view of the beach was taken from Mt. Manganui. Isn't it beautiful?

Another view from the Mt. trail

And another one! Everywhere we looked was a picture!!

This is one of the shell beaches around the Mt. There is no sand, only shells! I dug down about 4 inches, and still there were shells. It was just amazing - especially since shells are hard to come by on the CA beaches. Needless to say, I came home with a few shells!!

During our beach combing, I was also looking for sea glass from NZ - we looked in Napier and that area, as well as along the Coromandel peninsula and in Raglan! No sea glass!! There was none to be found in the Bay of Plenty, either - very strange!

Shell beach

Walking trail around the Mt. - about two miles long, and as you can see, nicely paved. There were walkers and joggers of every size and description!

Shag getting ready to take flight! Bryan hates these birds, as they prey on the fish that he stocks in his pond. Notice the clouds - I kept being reminded that we were on an island, as the clounds and weather moved on through.

This picture of the Mt. was taken from the little island that you saw in the first picture, above. You can see the hotels and building that is going on in this area.

Out on the little island. Another beautiful, sunny morning.

Lee enjoying the island, too!

This is a view of the Mt. from the bay side. Another beautiful, long beach to enjoy! There was lots of activity on the bay side - kayaking, sailing lessons, swimming, etc.

It was a wonderful three days in the Bay of Plenty! We headed home on the 18th, and went to a pot-luck dinner at Richards! There were 11 of us there, and we had a great variety of yummy foods!

Thursday was a "catch up" and laundry day, and Friday we spent with Bryan, as he was off on Friday. It also rained on Friday, so the paddle boat cruise that we had planned to do with Bryan and John was shelved, and, instead, John came out and joined us for lunch. Friday was our last full day in Hamilton, as we headed up to Auckland on Saturday for the final leg of our incredible journey!

It was so sad to leave Bryan and Peter, but we knew that we would see them at the AGP on Sunday, so it wasn't really good-bye!! And it feels great to know that we will be seeing them TWICE next year, as we'll visit in January again, and they're coming to see us in July! :)