The Mountain at Tauranga

Howdy, Tom here.  This is another blog post about another weekend trip, this time to Tauranga on the east coast.  Tauranga is an interesting place - it is New Zealand's busiest harbor and the most cosmopolitan place we've been in so far aside from Wellington.  Population is only 115K, but it has more of a city flavor, including good restaurants and classical music.  The harbor is a very strange shape, with a half-dozen distinct bays, several causeways connecting spits of land, and a very long almost uninhabited island stretching away to the north along the coast.  If you want to see a satellite map, click here.

The most striking feature of the harbor is a mountain that caps an isthmus that forms the entrance to the harbor.  It is an extinct volcano cone (of course, like all the mountains around here, except the ones that are active volcano cones) and it rises about 760 feet above the beach at the base.  We didn't plan it that way, but our entire weekend was really about that mountain, called Mauao by the Maori.  We climbed it, we circled it, we went out on an island nearby to look at it, we drove to a beach and looked back at it from the north, and we even traveled to a waterfall south of the city that unexpectedly gave us a great view through to the mount.  Most stirringly, we sat and soaked in thermally heated pools at the base of Mauao as the sun set behind it.

Tauranga is where our new friend Scott is doctoring and he was nice enough to meet us on Saturday to show us around with his friend's son Matthew in tow.  We breakfasted on the way at our favorite breakfast place in Rotarua (Third Place Cafe - highly recommended) and arrived around noon on an overcast day.  Here is the bay from the base of the mount:

The walk up the mountain was very pretty.  Here are the boys, enjoying the grassy land and the sheep pastures:

Here are Evelyn, Scott, and Matthew, pondering the gray sky.  Evelyn and Scott are probably actually having gross doctor discussions about suturing.

There are lots of sheep in New Zealand.  Here are a few of them.

The boys, kings of a small rock.

This is the long island that stretches to the north:

From the top, the city stretches out below.

Aidan has taken up tree climbing as a serious sport.  When we can't find him, we usually first look in the trees.

After the descent, we walked down to the beaches.

And became one with nature:

That night, we visited the thermal pools at the bottom of the mountain.  They were very hot, naturally heated from under the ground.  The contrast between the 50 degree air and the 100 degree water was really very pleasant - I'd gladly do that again.  We had a great dinner with Matthew's family and Scott at an Indian restaurant on The Strand.

The next morning, we headed back to the mountain, this time to walk around it instead of up it.  The sun came out and it looked like a completely different mountain:

There were two swings hanging from a large tree over a small cliff, so the kids swung on those for a while:

The original pier is still there from the late 19th C, so we walked out on it into the harbor:

Here is Aidan, headed up a tree again:

Another sheep, escaped from a fairy tale:

Two boys, perhaps escaped from the same fairy tale:

The Old Troll of the Bench:

And his mom and brother:

Aidan slid down an embankment to walk along the ocean:

Here is the embankment from a different angle:

Some mommy time by the rocks and sea:

The day was very windy and the ocean was smashing the rocky outcroppings on the eastern side of the mountain.  Here is one dramatic photo:

And one more pensive:

Trees are different here.  This is a cool one.  Supposedly many of these trees erupt in red flowers at Christmastime in the middle of the summer.  We'll come back to see them again, I guess.

More Jasper and a bench:

This is the Pacific ocean.  Next stop, Chile.

Maori tribes have for centuries greeted each other with intimidating displays of ferocity and strength, in times of peace and war.  Part of these displays is the contorting of the face, including the projection of the tongue.  The boys are working on this:

We are not.  At least we got one photo with the two of us in it:

Another view.  That island straight in the middle comes up later in this post.  Remember it.

Boys found a cave, albeit a small one.

Chillin' in the boughs:

Another shot of Mauao:

We walked along the beach to a spit of land that is really the island from the above photo.  It isn't an island anymore as it is connected to the beach, so you can walk out on it.  The history of this island is typical of New Zealand: it was sacred to the Maori and the site of an important fortification.  The British saw it as a good source for materials for the railway they envisioned serving this port, so a quarry was built.  When the quarry wasn't needed anymore, an aquarium opened with large tanks and an outdoor pool with trained dolphins.  That went bankrupt, so a water amusement park was opened on the site.  After that closed, the land reverted back to the government and volunteers have replanted the quarry site with local trees.  It is now a quiet reserve with a nice hiking trail.

From the island, looking back at the mountain:

Sitting on the rock at the end of the island, overlooking the ocean:

The next day, we drove down the coast to Whakatane.  Along the way, we stopped to see the Kaiate Falls.  We were surprised to see the mountain when we entered the valley:

After a short walk, we came to the top of the falls:

A path led down the edge of the drop:

Here we are, standing at the base of the third cascade.  The photo can't really do justice to the beauty of the spot:

Farther below was another drop.  We are so deep into the valley now that the light has grown dim:

Also along the way, we passed Kiwi360!  I took the opportunity to teach the children the word "kitsch."  I explained that this gigantic metal kiwi slice, unlike art, is a utilitarian object lacking all critical distance between object and observer; it offers instantaneous emotional gratification without intellectual effort, without the requirement of distance, without sublimation.  I'm sure you'll understand that we couldn't pass this giant kiwifruit without stopping.

Here we are, actually inside the kiwifruit.  There is a viewing platform on top, of course.  What's a giant kiwi without a viewing platform?  If there were no viewing platform, it would be Kiwi180.

 Unfortunately, our camera ran out of batteries at this point.  Perhaps it just told us it had no battery left after we used it to take pictures of the kiwifruit.  Regardless, we have no photos of Whakatane.  I'm sure we'll go back, as the view from the bluffs over the ocean was spectacular, but for now, you'll just have to wait for a future visit.