MT MAUNGANUI (NZ)

The whole house finally managed to get away for a weekend. We chose Mt Maunganui situated in the sunny (at least more then Auckland) Bay of Plenty. We drove through Paeroa were New Zealand’s very own soft drink L&P was born early last century. They are pretty proud of it even that it is now manufactured by multi-national Coca-Cola. We still can't make our mind up which was more impressive

THE GIANT BOTTLE

OR THE TALKING TOILET?

Anna and Chris talked us into taking the ferry to Matakana, a little island in the bay. You never heard of it? Well, its probably because there is absolutely nothing there apart from private land. Luckily we spoke to a farmer when we came off the ferry. She offered us to spend some time at the beach of her property. We made the most of it practicing poi and Chris even made it into the water.
Back to Mt Mounganui we were really impressed with our little cabin in the "Cosy Corner" campsite and enjoyed the BBQ and beers.
Of cause if you get to Mt Mounganui you do have to go up the mountain. We did so the next morning after we finished watching the All Blacks being kicked out at the rugby world cup and the nation was in shock. Anna took it fairly well and got distracted quickly by the steep walk uphill. From there we saw the sandy beach of Matakana island which we never reached but at least it was nice to see what we missed. We finished our trip with fish and chips and can't wait to our next one.