Climbed Mt Maunganui

Day 9  Thursday  March 21, 2019   Tauranga

The view from the summit of Mt Maunganui, which I climbed in the late morning while Janet relaxed and read by the ship's pool. The volcanic crater is at the tip of a peninsula, with Tauranga off in the distance. We never went far from the ship today, because all the excursions were things we would be doing on our Gate 1 tour.

We didn't dock until 9:30, so it already was a lazy morning. Plus, we didn't need to scurry off for an excursion. So at about 10:00, I headed off for Mt Maunganui. We had learned about this hike when watching Dave Upton's presentation about this port of call. As I was walking along this path to the mountain, there were a man and woman from the National Triathlon Team training with their coach, doing sprints off the beach into the ocean.

 At the base of the mountain was a large RV park.

 I was just getting started up the four-mile hike. All the way to the summit and back had great views.

Around the bend from the previous picture, facing north, was this flock. Across that narrow slice of water is Matakana Island. Our massive ship had carefully squeezed through this strip, and would do the same leaving in the evening.

The trail passed by this painted water tank, with eyes that looked so real. Mt Maunganui is in the front, with Māori warriors lining the slopes.

As the trail circled around to the east, I could see the narrow path for our ship between this peninsula and Matakana Island. The red and green buoys marking the channel were pretty darned narrow.

This was the steepest section of the hike. I met up with that couple in front, and it turned out they were from Indiana, because he was wearing his Purdue Univ alumni shirt.

Almost to the top, some quail chicks!

There's Papamoa Beach on the east side of the isthmus. The top of Majestic is barely visible to the far right of the photo. Later in the day, Janet and I walked into the town you see below, to sight-see and use free wifi.

Papamoa Beach was popular with tourists and surfers that day.

This was the actual summit. That stone monument in the distance had a plaque commemorating a big "Beacon Fire" held up there on July 19, 1919 "to commemorate PEACE" following the Great War.

I walked back down on a different trail, so I had new views. This looks south, where you can see a boat approaching from the same direction our ship did that morning. Near here was where I saw those two triathletes who had been training down at the bay, and now they were running up to the summit!

This is another view looking down on the narrow passage between Mt Maunganui and Matakana Island, with the mainland in the background. On the island is a little cleared section, and here is a close-up:

That's a navigational aid called range markers. The pilot lines up the line on the front post with the line on the back post, as a way to maintain a straight course. I used them many times during my Great Loop Cruise.

Different flora on the east side.

 

Almost down.

Nice beaches off to the south, with lots of sun seekers. Once I got down to the streets, there were athletic types everywhere, cycling, running, surfing. Even the two triathletes passed me again on their way back to their coach at the bay. Overall, I enjoyed the hike to the summit on a perfect day.

When I got back to the ship, I went to the pool where Janet was soaking up the sun and reading. I used the pool and hot tub, and retrieved some lunch from the Noodle Bar, and then we both got dressed to walk into the nearby town.

As we slowly walked and looked into various shops, we saw this bunch of people all sitting there, and also directly across the street, on their cell phones. Turned out it was a free wifi area due to the Bank of New Zealand across the street. Janet and I found seats and joined them! I was there long enough to do a Facebook posting. There also was an e-mail from Natalie Kerwin wondering if we wanted to get together, which had arrived late in the day before. Too late.

A cargo ship was headed back to sea as we enjoyed Happy Hour on the upper decks.

For dinner we ate in the Symphony and LOVED the lamb chops, plus fancy desserts and black cherry ice cream. The nearby diners could hear us raving about the chops, and remarked about how glad they were for us. LOL

We watched Mary Queen of Scots in the theater from 7 to 9 (no show that night), and liked it. As soon as it ended, the ship was moving, so we hurried up to 17th level to watch us pass slowly through the narrow strait next to Mt Maunganui with the full moon in the background. Quite a sight!

After that, we remained there to watch their much-ballyhooed Hot Latin Nights Fiesta Party on the pool deck, with the ship production cast. Trouble was, something went wrong with their music speaker system so it never got started. Janet and I bided our time in the nearby Hollywood Conservatory, enjoying how quiet and peaceful it was there. On our way back, they had gotten the music system fixed, so we got to watch for a little while, but decided to continue back to our room.