Tauranga is the first town I went to after Auckland. It is a really serene and tranquil seaside town. I walked along the Ocean beach and went on a trail at the islet that is connected to the beach.
I also hiked up Mount Maunganui with beautiful stunning views of the peaceful blue ocean and watched the yachts sail lazily across the waters.
I took the intercity bus from Auckland to Tauranga to look for a job for my working holiday journey. When I was still in Auckland planning for my working holiday, I saw a Pacific Coast Lodge advertising for some job positions and I decided to make a trip to Tauranga to find a job there and enjoy the Tauranga ocean beach town. The bus reached the lodge rather late, in the evening at 7pm and I tiredly lugged my luggage up the lodge and into the reception. I asked to check in with the reception and the lady asked if I wanted to buy a BBH card which gives me discount for all the BBH hostel in the country, there is also free overseas calling minutes and so I bought the card. I was ushered to my 6 bed dormitory room and the room atmosphere felt very welcoming and cosy. I walked to my bed and put down my stuff. Beside me, there were 3 german girls, the one opposite me was a French and there were 2 Taiwan girls opposite me too… I settled in for the night as the day’s journey has been very exhausting…
The next morning, I went to the reception to ask if any company was looking to hire… The lady took down my name on a waiting list and introduced me to two other travellers, one from Japan and one from Mexico, and she suggested that we could all walk together to town to register our names with the recruitment agencies… So after introducing ourselves a little more, we walk slowly towards town and talked a little about ourselves and our interests. After having run to three different agencies to look for jobs, we walk back to the hostel and along the way pass through a second hand shop. My friend went in and bought 2 shirts… Nothing much else happen for the rest of the day and we retreated back to the hostel to rest. I was on the internet all day finding out more about jobs and I walk past the recreation room and saw my newly met friends playing board games with a group of other travellers. It was a quiet and relaxing day…
On the third day, I went to the supermarket and to the local mall. Everything was so awe-inspiring and I stare at the shops for the longest time… In the afternoon, I went to an immigration company to apply for my tax id number so that I can apply for a job…
I went to the supermarket to get some food and they have all kinds of food there, many different varieties and so many things that I have never seen before in Singapore… When it was time to take my buys to the counter, the staff were really friendly and warm and everything about the place was different…
On my second last day there, the Japan guy, the Mexico guy and another Singapore guy that I met said we would climb the Mount – Mount Maunganui together and we set off and walk half an hour through town. It was an interesting walk through town, most of the restaurants were closed and the streets was quiet. We finally reach the foot of the Mount where we saw another tour bus and a huge tour group. It seems like many people are climbing the Mount today… so we started following the trail up the Mount… it was a really relaxing and interesting walk, as it was the first mountain I am walking and everything about it was interesting, like the footpath, the trees, the arrangement of the greeneries and the plants…
we finally reach the top and from there, we saw the ocean the blue sky and the sun casting a reflection of the water… the air was cool and it was really quiet, tranquil and beautiful. a yacht was sailing lazily out from the land and it felt really picturesque and I thought I would want to retire there in New Zealand, watching these things every day we spent some time walking wondering on the top of the hill and enjoying the scenery and the serenity of it…After about half an hour, we went down towards our hostel and that was it for the day
The next day, I decided to explore the ocean beach on my own and set off for it. Nothing interesting happen… just me exploring the ocean beach and enjoying the beautiful scenery…
On my last day there, the Japan guy and a Singapore guy were suppose to set off on our road trip to Hawkes’ bay where we got a job to work in some of the vineyards… we gathered and said goodbye to our friends and went into the car, starting our fantastic road trip to Hawkes’ Bay…
before that, i walked to the town centre and took some photos…
On a day that i was free, i walked the ocean beach. there was an islet and here’re the photos of the walk at the islet. photos of the ocean beach are on the next post.
I also took some photos of the walk along the ocean beach in my next article Tauranga (~part 2~). Please do take a look if you have time 🙂
(if you find this article useful, and would like to contribute to my article writing, you can contribute any amount via paypal to travelbackpackingblog@gmail.com)
Travel Backpacking 