Gym's Ramblings: Tromping into Tauranga

Gym likes Tauranga. It is in the Bay of Plenty! What more can you say? There are plenty of nice sandy beaches, lots of interesting looking golf courses and ample green spaces with extensive pathways. It is a city with just over 100,000 citizens, a nice size, all the amenities without the all of the big city issues. The location is great too as you can troll for snapper at sunrise and fly fish for rainbow trout in the evening. You see, this seaside location is only an hour away from some great lake country, surrounded by lush green forests of Monterey Pine and Douglas Fir (both imported species). You could pick up a recently renovated bungalow, flanked by palm trees, in Mount Maunganui neighbourhood for $500,000 NZ and be a block from the beach. How about Tauranga as a snowbird destination?

After arriving in the port at dawn, Gym and Mrs. Gym had a quick breakfast and were on their way. They had booked a tour that would take them up into the mountains. From the port, they toured through Tauranga, so they could check out the real estate. On the edge of the city the tour bus transitioned to an area covered by lush green avocado and kiwi farms. Once through that agricultural belt, the bus started rising up through the evergreen forests to the higher elevations. In less than an hour, they reached Lake Rotoiti at Okere Falls. The cabins lining the shores here reminded Gym of Shuswap (except it is a much smaller lake). Next they would enter Maori land around Lake Rotorua. That is where they would make their first stop.

After not seeing a kangaroo in Australia, Gym was not going to be denied in New Zealand. At the first stop on the shores of Lake Rotorua, Gym saw 3 live Kiwi birds (Mrs. Gym did too)! They were in captivity, but still these nocturnal creatures would be impossible to see in the wild. The venue was called the Hamurana Springs Nature Reserve. Our adventurers also met Jenny the Kea, an alpine parrot native to the South Island and a whole bunch of other birds and reptiles from around the country. A pond fed by the pristine and pure waters of Hamurana Springs, flows through the reserve and was filled with some of the biggest trout that Gym had ever seen.

Next stop was lunch and the tour boarded a paddle wheeler on Rotorua Lake, to be served a buffet lunch by the Maoris that owned the boat. The boat would circle Makoia Island in the middle of the lake and the group was treated to some Maori dancing and singing during the voyage. The trouble was that just as Gym's poor group boarded the boat, the sky opened up and it rained for the whole boat ride. No one on the boat could really see the shorelines but it was still a great lunch and show.

The tour then headed up to Wai-O-Tapu Reserve. This was the highlight of the day. The reserve is an active geothermal area, of steaming craters, active geysers and bubbling mud pits set in a green hilly valley that can be explored on three kilometres of excellent trails. The trails wind between the various geothermal features along the Wai-O-Tapu stream. The stream provides drainage from the area but also sets up areas where a diverse palette of colourful minerals leached out of the rocks to create a number of natural masterpieces one can view from the boardwalk. Gym and his lovely sidekick agreed that they had never seem a more alien landscape. At the conclusion of the walkabout and to top it all off, Mrs. Gym found the gloves she was eyeing at a previous stop, for half the price in the Wai-O-Tapu gift shop - what a bargain!

On the ride back to the dock Gym had time to reflect on the prospect of buying property in Tauranga. Wai-O-Tapu was a great day-trip but what did that geothermal field and nearby Mount Tarawera, an active strato-volcano, portend about the prospect of making a real estate investment in the area. Molten lava and hot ash can do a real number on your vacation home's curb appeal. Gym came to the conclusion that it needed more study before a final investment decision could be made.

As the sun was setting the Insignia sailed out of the port past Mount Maunganui and turned south. During the night and the next day, the ship would round the East Cape of the North Island and make its ways to Napier, in Hawke's Bay.

Stay tuned.

Pulling into Tauranga in front of a freighter. The bright-yellow tugs
were brand new.

Mrs. Gym is actually standing in front of a giant Redwood tree,
imported from California these trees grow well in the area.

Jenny the Alpine Parrot prefers men to women.

Big trout from Rotorua Lake

Sure, this is a stuffed Kiwi but honestly we saw 3 live ones.
They are housed is a building that simulates night during the day
so the birds will be active for the tourists. Because they prefer a
the darkness, no cameras are allowed.

The Lakeland Queen, our lunch venue.

The old Tudor Bathhouse in Rotorua township

The Devil's Home is one of many deep caldera where
the rocks are being eroded from beneath by geothermal
forces.

Hopefully you can see the colourful mineralization on the sides of this collapsed feature.
The bubbling cauldron emits H2S gas and along with other mineral vapours and they "paint"
the sides of the crater.