Weather juz not right for swim wear... Plenty of Bay !
After a few rainy days in Auckland, my house-mate and a few other friends praying hard to a clear day today. It's the end of Winter, the weather seem to be colder and chilling, even though it's not snowing in Auckland.
A journey of two and a half hours from Auckland, we reached Tauranga, located along the "Bay of Plenty", which has everthing we need for a ultimate holiday. From the sun, surf and seaside, hiking through magnificient native bush and the heart of Tauranga Town.

Along the journey, me and my housemates we amazed by the idyllic scenery and beautiful country side. Being a nature lover like me, this is mesmerizing... you will never seen this in Malaysia (farms, hills, rivers and fruits plantation everywhere).
But to the New Zealanders, you will never Malaysia's scenery here too.

Tauranga is one of the largest/busiest export port in NZ and it's the centre of NZ's principal kiwi fruit region. The kiwi season is normally between May to June, and too bad that we've missed it this time!

After we've checked-in for our accomodation, we head our way to Fernland Hot Spring. We immediately start up the fire and prepare our BBQ Lunch as we hardly bear the hunger although we had our breakfast before we starts our journey. All the marination was prepared by Janice & Nelson (they're really nice couple), this time our menu will be all meat, yes we wanna be carnivores this time. All I could said is "Perfect", the taste, the environment and the weather... Once we finished with the BBQ I cant wait to change to my trunks soak myself into the hot springs pool.

The following day, everyone woke up so early and pack-up things. By 10.30am we started our journey and stop by the tourist spot along the way back from Tauranga. Kiwiland at Te Puke, KatiKati (thinking of going to the Bird Garden but the luck wasn't on our side coz, it was closed), Ngatea & Paeroa (the small town that produce L&P, one of the famous Lemonade softdrink in NZ).



Mt Maunganui (the name means "Large Mountain")

It's a volcanic formation, stands at the foot of the 232m hill NZ "Surf City".It affords views of Tauranga and the surrounding area. Near the foot of the hill are fine beaches and saltwater pools. (The above photos, Left : view of the Mount from Moturiki Island, Right : view from the top of Mt Maunganui.)

Waihi Beach.....

Along the way back to Auckland we made several stops. One of it is the Waihi town, which sparkles with 100km of white sand, an enticing blue ocen and this place has held irresistible charm for us.

For more info check out this site:

• http://www.tauranga.co.nz/
• http://www.bayofplentynz.com/