November 14, Tauranga NZ

November 14, Tauranga NZ

Tauranga is located in the western part of the Bay of Plenty, and extends from Katikati and Waihi Beach to Papamoa and Te Puke on the coast and south to the Kaimai ranges. Captain Cook sailed into the Bay of Plenty in October 1769, giving it its name, because of the number of thriving settlements of friendly Maori he encountered there. Tauranga is the principal city of the Bay of Plenty, and enjoys one of the highest proportions of sunny days in New Zealand. One of the largest ports in New Zealand, it exports produce from the rich surrounding region, along with logs, woodchips, and timber products. The kiwifruit is also grown in this region.

We were on a cruise critic tour again today, which was supposed to start at 8am with 21 of us going. We were told that the bus should be there between 7:30-7:45 so we were waiting on the pier by 7:40a. The bus finally showed up shortly after 8:30am (not a good way to start off the day in our opinion). By the time we got onto the bus, made a stop inside the dock area, we finally went off on the first leg of the tour around 9am. From the dock we made a short trip around the outskirts of Tauranga and then headed out of town, for a stop at a kiwifruit farm. We spent about 30 minutes there and then left for Rotorua and the Maori living thermal village of Whakarewarewa. Built on a geothermal plain, with geysers and heated mud pools, it is a re-creation of a typical Maori village. While interesting we were somewhat disappointed.

From the village we went into the town or Rotorua for lunch and a buffet type restaurant where we had a pretty nice lunch. After lunch we made a quick trip down through the center of Rotorua and then off again on a long ride to an area owned by the Gideons. While beautiful from a nature standpoint with a wonderful waterfall on the property, it also was somewhat disappointing. Perhaps if we had a better understanding of the Maori culture some of the tour may have made more sense to us.

But, given the amount of money we paid for the tour, and the lateness of the operator in the morning, we were not pleased overall and probably would not book a tour with the company again if we ever came back to the area.

But this is only one tour of the many we have taken and it certainly will not spoil our enjoyment of the cruise. We have been blessed with fantastic weather up to now and have had wonderful port visits.

Next stop, Auckland NZ arriving at 7am and not leaving until 8pm, another very long day!