Hiking, swimming, giant kiwis and rotten eggs!

Panoramic view from top of Papamoa Hills hike

Saturday, Feb. 12th.
After Nat’s dolphin swimming was cancelled, we woke up to a beautiful blue sky day.  We scanned the skies looking for signs of the “bad weather” that had caused the cancellation, but it wasn’t overly windy and the clouds were far away on the horizon.  Maybe weather forecasters are as accurate here as they are in Calgary, ha ha ha. 
Got going a bit late after checking out before 10am. Filled up the car with gas, cost over $60NZD, at $1.99 per litre.  We had driven 400km on the first tank. Grabbed a mocha and the most delicious savoury muffin at The Hub, a coffee shop right next to the Shell. Man these Kiwis know how to do breakfast food!!

Path to summit of Papamoa Hill

We decided to leave Tauranga and head southeast down the coast towards Papamoa. Barry found a good short hike in the Papamoa Hills, which would give us panoramic views in the area. On the way, we took a wrong turn (that’s been happening alot in the Tauranga area, which lacks signs for key freeway turnoffs!!) and decided to check out Papamoa Beach beforehand. Glad we did, as it looked like a nice swimming beach, with lifeguards on duty, changerooms and lots of places to sit on the soft sand.  We decided we’d come back here after the hike to go for a dip and relax.