Auckland & Tauranga, New Zealand

/ Uncategorized / By

Auckland, NZ

Our excursion in Auckland was canceled, so we spent the day walking around the city. We managed to tour the local maritime museum which included a short sail in the harbor aboard a sailboat.

My Kitchen Rules NZ

MKR New Zealand (My Kitchen Rules NZ) is a reality TV show where teams participate in various cooking competitions each week throughout the season. We had just finished eating dinner at Oyster & Chop in Auckland. As we were strolling down the boardwalk to walk the meal off, we stumbled across a live filming of MKR. One of the competitions is a people’s choice challenge where ordinary folks, not the normal judges, taste the food and vote for their favorite. Since we had just eaten, we didn’t brave the lines to taste the food, but the aroma was amazing. It was a neat, unexpected treat.

Tauranga, New Zealand, lies southeast of Auckland and is an adventure-lover’s paradise. Originally settled by the Māori people, this vibrant city is a popular destination for hiking, kayaking, biking, golfing, and everything active.

Mount Maunganui, or Mauao, commonly known by locals as The Mount, is a dormant volcanic cone  at the eastern entrance to the Tauranga Harbor. It is considered very important and tapu (sacred) by the local Māori.

Te Puia Thermal Reserve

Featuring 148 acres of geothermal wonders, Te Puia is home to the spouting Pohutu geyser and boasts silica terraces, pools of boiling mud and dramatic steams vents. The reserve also features a fascinating re-creation of an early Maori village. Our Maori guide gave us a fascinating tour of this natural wonder considered to be a sacred place by the Maori people.

Te Puia’s Maori Arts & Crafts Institute

The institute’s mission is to preserve the ancient skills and rich culture of the Maori. Young people from across New Zealand are selected as apprentices and learn skills ranging from carving to weaving. The best part of the day was listening to a Maori concert, which included the world famous haka, a war dance designed to frighten an enemy.