DAY 6-
I woke up mad early and checked out of the hostel immediately. Rotorua is a cool city but it was not my favorite place so I started on my way to Tauranga and Mount Maunganui. The drive there was only an hour and the weather was spectacular so it went by quickly <3 Holy moly this might be my favorite city so far!! I love Tauranga. The people were super friendly and the environment is STUNNING. First thing I did was hike around the base of the mountain itself. The mountain is located on a peninsula in the middle of The Bay of Plenty.
WOWWWW. Every single gap in the trees revealed the sparkling water, hidden islands, or a secret beach. Boats dotted the waves while happy people swam in the warm water. The hike around the base is only about 2 miles so afterwards I decided to hike to the summit of the mountain. This trip was also relatively easy although the incline is rough in a few places! Hahaha good thing I am in shape… haha… Whatever, I made it to the top where I chatted with one of the locals. She ended up playing photographer and having an impromptu photo shoot with me! I am so grateful to her because she was excellent to talk to and took even better pictures. I stayed at the summit for a little bit before making the trek down to the beach.
I laid out on the beach for the next several hours. And before you say “hey Melissa, maybe that isn’t such a great idea because you’ll get sunburned” I SLATHERED on the sunscreen. And still got burned. Eh it was worth it for the sun and crossword puzzles (I don’t even care if that sounds lame to you). I saw people swimming, sunbathing, surfing, boogie boarding, running, playing in the sand etc. I even called my best friend Melissa and talked with her for a solid half hour. Today was amazing. After laying out I walked down the beach to grab a late lunch and see different parts of the park. Eventually I made my way back to the car and left to drive back to Auckland. In Auckland I unpacked my bag and hung out for a while before heading out to dinner. I had delicious mussels at a Belgian restaurant then went back to sleep.
DAY 7-
I woke up today feeling GREAT. My flights was scheduled to leave at 3:30 so I had some time to kill before heading to the airport. I packed up my stuff and drove to Mount Eden (see picture below), got in a quick hike, then drove to Mount Wellington! I also got in a quick hike here before returning my rental car. UGH here is where the trip gets hairy… I waited in line at the airport to check in and was told that standby passengers need to wait in the queue and cannot wait by the gate. Alright that’s fine… so I wait in the line and slowlyyyy the number of available seats gets lower and lower… It doesn’t look like I am going to make this so I call my mom and we figure out what my options are. After lots of deliberation I book an actual ticket for tomorrow just in case, and wait. And wait. AFTER ALL THIS WAITING I still didn’t get a seat so I sat down on a bench and am waiting for my phone to charge. Hopefully I can figure out something to do tonight because my flight doesn’t leave until tomorrow morning…..
UPDATE! I decided to go out with a few new friends from my hostel and sing karaoke! Probably not the best idea before the flight but it was totally worth it! The flight went by swimmingly and I managed to sleep the entire 12ish hour ride. Then slept again from SFO to MSP… hahah safe to say I was exhausted.
Aslo… here is a picture from the hot springs in Rotorua that I forgot to post! There was a small stream of HOT water coming from a hot spring that flowed into a river. You could wade into the river for varying temperatures…. it was heavenly.
