Travel Story «Bay of Plenty»

New Zealand | 0 Comments 12 April 2006 - Last Update 05 May 2006

the Bay of Plenty. Plenty around.

If you look up a travel agent's brochure about the Bay of Penty in New Zealand, 9 pages out of 10 will tell you everything in and around Rotorua, but there is much more beyond.
After our galaxy experience in Waitomo, we headed straight to Rotorua ( 3 April), Sulphur City with first stop in Wai-o-tapu geothermal wonderland. if you browse our pictures, Champagne Pool is the main draw. A very special place we thought, not only because of the hot pools, mud pools, geysers etc. No, the whole city seems to thrive on that. There is a big Maori community here but we didn't really attend one of these shows. We had a guided tour in Te Puia (with Pohutu geyser), by local Maori people, we had a look around a Maori village, small artefact museum and saw some traditional Maori carving.
The rest of Te Puia is full of geothermal activity, nice mudpools and the famous Pohutu geyser.
We stayed two days in Rotorua, on a friendly Art-Deco holiday park, 5k north of town, in nice surrounding.
But as most of the Kiwi's prepare for winter (summer in Europe), the last three campsites, we were the only tenters. After Easter, tourism will be very low.
After Rotorua, we headed north, via Te Puke to Mt. Maunganui and Tauranga.
Tauranga has the second largest port in NZ and this is a very busy city, a lot of traffic, but once you hit the beach, we were fine. Mt Maunganui is popular holiday escape and the climate is mild. We stayed here (5-6 April) two days and climbed the Mount (232m), pretty ok to climb and once you reach the top, splendid views of the Bay... but of course, you need to have good weather.
Mt Maunganui was our last stop in the Bay of Plenty before heading to the Coromandel.

see Coromandel