Mt Maunganui & Rotorua, New Zealand - December 2010

Sunset from our balcony on the ship was a good one.

While Sam and I have travelled reasonably extensively around the South Island of New Zealand, we haven't spent a lot of time on the North Island. This was actually our first visit to Tauranga in the Western Bay of Plenty. We were on a cruise on this visit and our shipped docked at the Mt Maunganui Wharf in the beautiful sea side town of the same name this morning. Instead of exploring town though, this morning Sam and I headed straight to grab a hire car and motored off to visit the nearby Rotorua, around an hours drive away.

Strap yourself in for some Rotorua thermal action.

The sulphur smell is my lasting memory of this place.

Sam's doing the tourist thing at Rotorua.

Rotorua is famous for its thermal attractions and that indeed was the reason we were here this morning. Heading through town we went straight to the Te Whakarewarewa thermal reserve, there are a couple of commercial operators here and to be honest I can't remember who we went with. What I do remember is wandering around checking out the numerous different bubbling hot springs... well that and the sulphur smell! The big attraction here is the Pohutu spring, this big geyser erupts fairly frequently and when it does it sprays hot water and steam 30 metres into the air, its definitely worth checking out.

This big geyser blasts off fairly frequently.

Rotorua

Rotorua

Rotorua

After spending the morning and early afternoon checking out the various attractions in Rotorua we headed back to Mt Maunganui to drop off the hire car and check things out. I'm thinking that Mt Maunganui is New Zealand's version of Australia's Byron Bay, there are lots of trendy shops, cafés and bars along with a beautiful golden sand surf beach. After some retail therapy and a little promenading, Sam and I somewhat reluctantly made our way back to the ship. I'd really like to get back here one day and stay for a few days (he says around eleven years later, when I haven't even managed to set foot on the North Island again!).

Mt Maunganui

Mt Maunganui front beach.

Heading back to the ship through the suburban streets of Mt Maunganui.

Back on the sanctuary of the ship we had time for a quick shower and change of clothes before heading up on deck for the sail away. This is a particularly photogenic harbour to sail out of with the sun setting over the water to the west of us and Mt Maunganui bathed in a nice soft golden light as we sailed by. After we'd stayed on deck watching the east coast of New Zealand slip away we headed inside to grab some dinner. Returning to our room that night we were treated to one last highlight as the setting sun put on a show to remember, one of the advantages of having our own balcony.

Mt Maunganui from the ship.

The sun setting over the Bay of Plenty.

I'd picked up this sweet shirt in town that afternoon. 

Mt Maunganui

The Dirt.

This cruise was another one with Princess Cruises. Post Covid this cruise company is much maligned however in all our cruises with them Sam and I never had a issue - so much so that we'll be back on board again once the Covid situation settles down a bit. This trip was around a two week cruise that started and finished in Melbourne. For an Aussie then New Zealand is about as close you can get to still being at home whilst being overseas so hiring a car and driving around independently isn't really an issue. Both Rotorua and Mt Maunganui are a little touristy however they are still well worth a visit - I'm thinking that Mt Maunganui for a week in summer but out of the school holidays might be something Sam and I consider when we retire.

Relevant Posts.

Wellington, New Zealand, 2010.

The North Island put on a great show tonight.

Lyttelton, New Zealand - December 2010

Today turned out to be a bit of a momentous day for Sam and I. Our plan for the day was to head out of Lyttelton on a wildlife cruise in the morning before heading into Christchurch in the afternoon to check things out. Unfortunately though, while we were out in Lyttelton Harbour checking out the Hector Dolphins a decent sized earthquake struck Christchurch, well actually it was technically an aftershock from an earlier earthquake that had rocked the city in September 2010. Our little 4.9 earthquake became known as the Boxing Day aftershock and knocked out the power as well as causing damage to more than 20 buildings. Tragically for Christchurch and her residents just over a year later in 2011 another big earthquake almost destroyed the city and resulted in 185 deaths.

There were a few reminders of the big earthquake that rocked Christchurch a few months ago.

Christchurch is on the other side of these hills.

Our day started off fairly uneventfully though as Sam and I jumped on a boat and headed away from the Lyttelton Wharf to check out Lyttelton Harbour. The main attraction here was that we hopefully would have a chance to spot some of the rare Hector Dolphins that live in the area. Initially at least we didn't have a lot of luck with our dolphin mates as they played a bit coy with us. While the dolphins were not showing themselves this morning the beautiful scenery more than made up for it I think. Lyttelton Harbour is cut into the large Banks Peninsula (the even more beautiful Akaroa Harbour is on the other side of the peninsula) and the golden tussock topped cliffs look particularly nice.

Sam's settled in for the day.

The Banks Peninsula.

 

There were a lot of waterbirds around.

After checking out some Cormorants we slowly started our return journey back to the wharf and that's when our day took a turn for the better as we were joined by some playful dolphins. These Hector Dolphins are very small members of the dolphin family, the bigger females only growing up to 1.4 metres in size. What they lack in size though they make up for with playfulness though, they seem to love surfing on wakes.

Banks Peninsula

The Banks Peninsula - it looks like there is a freshwater spring seeping out of the cliffs.

Hector Dolphin

Hector Dolphin

After our notable wildlife encounter we continued heading back towards the wharf however instead of returning to the ship we visited the nearby Ripapa Island to check things out. Ripapa Island was originally the site of a Mãori pã. A pã is a Mãori fortification and this particular site was occupied back in the early 1800's and up until 1832. After some internal Mãori wars the pã was abandoned. The island then hosted a quarantine station in the late 1800's until World War 1 rolled around and Fort Jervis was built to protect the harbour. Nowadays there are still some gun emplacements and fortifications to check out on the small island and it was an interesting spot to check out.

Ripapa Island

Ripapa Island - this is some prized real estate.

It was as we were leaving Ripapa Island that we received the news of the Christchurch earthquake. Everyone was ordered to return back to the ship for safety reasons. I couldn't help but spare a thought for the people working on the boat, these people obviously had loved ones back in Christchurch and with information filtering through it was obvious how concerned that they were. A holiday and a wildlife cruise suddenly seeming a very trivial pursuit.

Ripapa Island

Looking back towards Lyttelton Harbour.

The Dirt.

We visited Lyttelton on a Princess Cruise on this visit, this was actually our first cruise with Princess and it obviously left an impression on us as we've done quite a few more over the years. The wildlife tour was with a company called Black Cat who appear to be still operating and running tours around the Banks Peninsula area.

Relevant Posts.

Port Chalmers, 2010.

The Routeburn Track, 2014.

Arrowtown, Chinese Settlement Walk, New Zealand - December 2014

While I was resting in Queenstown for a couple of days last year, whilst waiting for Sam to arrive, I reluctantly tore myself away from the coffee shops for an afternoon and headed out to Arrowtown to check it out. Arrowtown is an old mining village just over 20 kilometres from Queenstown, the small village has a population of around 2400 people and next to quaint in the dictionary there is  a picture of Arrowtown. Arrowtown sprung up in the 1860's when gold was found in the Arrow River, luckily a lot of old historical buildings have survived the years and have been tastefully restored. 

The Chinese Settlement Walk.

Parking down near the park at the north side of town I firstly wandered over to the historic Chinese Settlement Walk. Arrowtown had a lot of Chinese prospectors back in the day, and like in Australia their treatment in New Zealand was sometimes very bad, the Chinese miners weren't even allowed their own claims and were left to rework old claims a lot of the time. The old settlement at Arrowtown is a good example of how the Chinese lived and worked in ye olde days. 

The old miners huts looked like they'd be good for hobbits.

Following the Swamp Gully Track along the banks of Bush Creek I passed numerous restored old mining shacks, some cut into the sides of the mountain. One of the interesting things about these old building is how low the roof and door height is, some of the doors were only chest height on me, those Chinese blokes must have been pretty short. Now while they may have been short at the same time they must have been tough, as it would have been a hard, cold and wet place to work and live. After less than half a kilometre (hey I didn't say that this was a long walk!) I picked up a track that linked up to Manse Road.

Once out of the gully I followed the quiet Manse Road for a few hundred metre away from town, there are some nice galleries out here and from the look of it today it seems that they are far enough from the centre of town that most of the day trippers don't get out here as I was the only person checking the works out. After checking out a couple of the private galleries I wandered back towards town along the quiet road climbing up to the old cemetery on the way to check out the well loved headstones and graves. These old cemeteries are great places to stop for awhile and take everything in, with a little imagination and with the information on the headstones its easy to imagine a little of what life was like out here a century or two ago.

There are a couple of private art galleries out of town a bit on Manse Road, this one featured a nice garden as well.

Arrowtown Cemetery.

Climbing above the cemetery I visited the small war memorial overlooking the main part of town, its old guns standing like sentinels over the town. My thoughts now turned to coffee, it had been at least two hours since my last caffeine hit so I was obviously doing it hard. Making my way down to the main street in Arrowtown, Buckingham Street I crossed over another little trail, the Te Araroa Trail, now that's a little stroll that'll will have to wait until I retire I reckon, but gee it looks good. The main street was a hive of activity this afternoon and after grabbing a coffee I wandered around for an hour or so checking out the galleries and shops, if history or shopping was your thing you could easily spend a day exploring Arrowtown and still be left with something to see I think. Today however I was running out of time, so with a little reluctance I jumped back in the car and headed back to Queenstown, I'll definitely be back in Arrowtown again one day to spend some more time checking it out, next time hopefully with Sam.

One of the old guns that stand like sentinels over looking down town Arrowtown.

Another one for my bucket list.

Arrowtown is impossibly quaint.

The Dirt.

I didn't really use any notes on this walk, the Chinese Settlement Walk has a paragraph in Excellent Short Walks In The South Island by Peter Janssen and the DOC brochure Wakatipu Walks also has a very short description in it. All you really need to do here is to head to the visitor information centre and grab a tourist map of Arrowtown and then explore where ever takes your interest, you're not going to get lost in Arrowtown.

The main street is home to some great shops, galleries and cafes, I'll have to come back one day with Sam.