Being a Tourist

Okay, so we are tourists everywhere we go in New Zealand, but in the last few days we have visited a couple of really touristy spots.

The first large city that you come to when you leave the Coromandel on the east coast is Tauranga. Tauranga has become one of the main ports in New Zealand by extensively developing their harbor and offering attractive docking rates to shipping companies. The down side of this is that they have opened themselves up to potential environmental disasters caused by ships running aground and spilling oil as happened on our fist night in the area.

While Tauranga has developed its economy by become an industrial town, the nearby town of Mount Maunganui (more commonly called The Mount) has become the main tourist attraction in the area by advertising its beautiful white sand beaches and great surfing. When we were working in Waimauku we met a British traveler who ended up moving to The Mount to work so we were able to stay with him. He works at a surf shop and was able to get me a good rental deal on a wetsuit and surfboard (free) so I gave surfing a try. It was easy to look the part, however my attempts to surf were a complete failure. Aside from surfing and enjoying the sun on the beach we also climbed Mount Maunganui to take in the incredible vistas in the area.

It was hard to leave the sun kissed beach and incredible surf of The Mount and head inland, but eventually we did. Our next stop was Rotorua, one of the first towns in New Zealand to market itself as a tourist destination. The marketing began in the 1880s with the development of the area’s geothermal attractions and was furthered by the opening of a state of the art bath house in 1908. Rotorua is built on top of a very active geothermal area and a bath in the waters was believed to cure many ailments. Many other tourist attractions have been added to the area since that time and now over 3 million tourists a year visit the area.

Our tourist route through Rotorua included a visit to the Rotorua Museum which is housed in the old bathhouse and a walk through the thermal park within the city limits. A little bit outside of town we went to a Maori culture show and hangi, a traditional Maori style dinner, visited Wai-O-Tapu to watch a geyser go off with a little help from organic soap and see the incredible geothermal formations in the area, soaked ourselves in a geothermal creek and stopped by the Whakarewarewa Forest to see some Redwoods. The forest was planted with over 170 tree species beginning in the early 1900s to determine which one would grow best in New Zealand. The winner was Radiata Pine (which is now all over the country), but some of the other varieties including Redwoods are still standing today. We also found a wonderful pub with New Zealand craft brews on tap and watched a couple of rugby games there before leaving town to head for the East Cape.