Monday was the last day of the long weekend, and I left Hamilton relatively early to return to Auckland, the bus journey being a lot quicker than the way down. When returning I checked into my hostel, moving back to Grafton House for a change of scenery. I had a relaxing afternoon, heading down into Newmarket to look round the shops, before heading back to the hostel to sort myself out for work the next day.
Much of my week at the university was spent over in building 183 which with it being easter holidays meant demolition work could begin properly in the building. This meant a lot of smashing up furniture and chucking it into the skip, as well as moving things which they wanted keeping. Over in the main building a lot of the interior work like electrics, walls, and roofing needed doing which meant there was a fair few deliveries which needed moving to various places. The building is starting to take shape now and come the end of the week we had a fair of tidying up to do for next week when they begin to remove some of the scaffolding.
Come weekend I decided to get out Auckland and spend it down in Tauranga. Tauranga is New Zealands fifth largest city and is home to the largest container port in New Zealand. Sheltered from the Pacific Ocean by Mount Maunganui and Matakana Island, the city has become a popular destination for both business and tourism with its warm climate, beaches, and is one of the countries most rapidly growing cities. I left Auckland early with it being a 3 hour bus journey away, arriving not long after 10, where I headed over to explore Mount Maunganui.
Mount Maunganui is a major residential and industrial suburb of Tauranga, but until 1988 was completely separate, when the completion of the Tauranga Harbour Bridge linked the two places. The suburb itself is in fact on a tombolo which from my geography days is a depositional piece of land which links an island to the mainland, the island being the imposing mound at the end. This means Mount Maunganui has two beaches just a few blocks apart, one on the Pacific, and one on the harbour, making the area popular with tourists. Walking across the harbour bridge, it took me about an hour and a half to get here where when arriving I had lunch.
After lunch I headed to the large mound at the end, formed by volcanic activity. I was planning to walk around the bottom and then head up to the top, but the base path was shut as it was damaged from the cyclone the week before, with the Bay of Plenty area being particularly badly hit. I therefore headed straight up top along a gradual winding path with great views across to many of the surrounding islands. Once up top I sat down and took in the iconic view over towards Tauranga which I've seen in photos many times before.
After heading back down I headed to Moturiki Island via the beach which gave good views back towards the mound. I then headed the mere couple of blocks across to the other beach and grabbed a drink before heading to good spot to watch the sunset which was pretty impressive. After sunset I headed back into Tauranga, checking into my hostel for the night where I just spent the evening chilling out and watching a film before bed.
The following day I went and explored Tauranga itself, walking along the modern waterfront on the harbour edge, before heading out across the rail bridge to get views across the harbour. I then headed north to get some views of the islands and Mount Maunganui, following the waters edge round for a fair way. Before catching the bus back to Auckland I grabbed something to eat and looked round a few of the shops. When arriving back in Auckland after a pretty slow journey back, I checked in my hostel, moving to a new one over in Parnell for a change of scenery. With my stuff being elsewhere however, and shopping to do for the week, I didn't manage to sit down and relax until quite late but all in all it was a good weekend!
No comments:
Post a Comment