 |
| Balcony with room service brekky |
 |
| Mt Manganui |
It was a tight squeeze for the captain and pilot, not only is the port quite narrow but we had followed the Sea Princess in so had to park in front of her. We could see a ship waiting up ahead as we were nearing Mt Manganui and later found out from the captain that there is a very short window for ships to get into the port, The Sea Princess was early so was waiting until we arrived and the tide was right.
Once docked and after our lovely breakfast we headed off the Majestic in search of our bus that was taking us to Rotorua. It hadn't arrived yet, we were earlier than the meeting time so did a bit of sight seeing plus were scoping out where a bottle shop was for our wine later in the day :-) Mt Manganui is a nice little place, apparently quite pricey to buy property but a favourite for holiday makers and retirees.
We found a bottle shop so made our way back to the port to see if our ride was there, it was. With everyone on board (or so we thought) we headed off towards Rotorua. We had a brief tour of Mt Manganui before the drive got a call saying there were two more passengers for him. They had been at the bus but there was a miscommunication (obviously) so they weren't going to catch the bus, things changed. We waited for them to catch up to us and then finally we were really on our way. When you have a tight schedule you don't like to waste time waiting for late passengers.
It was about an hours drive to our first drop off stop which was Hells Gate, the two late arrivals got off here (I think this is where the miscommuication had come about as the bus wasn't coming back here - even though it was technically a HoHo bus - so the girls didn't know how they were going to get back to the ship, they must have worked things out as we picked them out at another stop later in the day). As a family we had been to Hells Gate, it looked smaller than I remembered even mum thought so but we did only see the outside.
Next stop were two Thermal Spas where a few of the other passengers got off at and the rest of us got off in the heart of Rotorua. We didn't catch the bus again until it was due to o back as we decided we could walk to the other three stops. I'm sure dad wouldn't have mined catching the bus as it was HOT. I had jeans and a t-shirt on so went in search of a shop to buy a cheap dress, no luck. We didn't think it would be so hot but it was a glorious day much better than cold and rain!
We spent a few hours walking around and then decided a spot of lunch was in order seeing as the ship was nowhere to be seen. Fush and chups it was, well for dad and me, mum had chucken and chups. Not bad and it was air conditioned. I popped into a department store and bought myself a cap as I'd forgotten mine.
 |
| Rotorua Lake |
We walked down to the lake and then the gardens where we met Kev and Gayle with the daughter and son in law. They'd hire a car. There was a thermal pool where you could soak your foot, or body if you liked, so we did just that (feet only). The water was hot but did help ease the tiredness after so much walking. An ice cold pool would have been nice but you're not going to get that at Rotarua with all the thermal springs around!
 |
| Gardens - thermal pools |
Back on board the bus and off to our lovely ship. After arriving back in Mt Manganui we walked back to a bottle shop we'd spied on the drive back in and grabbed a couple of bottles of wine.
No problems getting back on board. We made for our cabin to have a freshen up and getting ready for drinks on the balcony and sailaway. Another masterful effort from the captain and pilot and off we head. Sea day tomorrow. Time for dad to recover from the hot day we had today.
 |
| Tug helping us out |
 |
| The Sea Princess and Tauranga all lit up |
Another wonderful day!
No comments:
Post a Comment