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| The rocky coastline has cost many ships their existence here, and many an unfortunated passenger's as well. It's a beautiful but dangerous coast |
| Erin's Journal 01-05-03 New Zealand Today I had a slow morning. We woke up around 9am, and it took a long time for me to get rolling. So Glenn had time to catch up on some journals while I finally got showered, and I made sandwiches for lunch while he finished up. Then we packed for a day out and drove into Tauranga. As it was Sunday, there wasn't much open in town, but that only made it slightly easier to find parking along the streets. Many people were in town for the shops and restaurants along the waterfront, and few clothing stores that were having mega-sales. We went first to the internet cafe that was the only one listed in our book. As it turns out, there were several others in town that we saw as we drove on later, but this one was fine. We planned to just check a particular email and book our Sydney Harbor Bridge Climb, a Christmas present from Glenn's parents. But we got all caught up in email as usual, and spent a bit over an hour booking the climb, then responding to a bunch of friends we'd not made time for during our hurry to update the website in Melbourne. It was after 1pm when we finished up, and then the next task was to find a place to stay for the next couple of nights. We wanted to go on a dolphin swim tour out of Tauranga, which meant staying in or near town for the next day or so, but the motel we'd been in was too expensive and we wanted to downsize. We tried our luck with Servas again, but once again had absolutely no luck finding a host! Yes, it is a busy time of the year. Yes, it was only a day ahead of when we thought we'd need a place to stay. But each host we'd called had listed themselves as needing no prior notice to host, and each one of the 7 we called was unable to do it! Either they had family in town, were going on vacation themselves, or no longer wanted to host for Servas! This is the same problem we had in Adelaide, where we'd called at least 12 different hosts and had only one accept! So far, we are totally unsatisfied with the Servas program. Finally we gave up, and called to book a dolphin tour the next day. The weather was a bit on the cloudy side, and it had rained during the night, with predictions that the rain would worsen throughout the week, so the tour operator told us to call back between 7 and 9 pm to find out if the tour would be taking place the next day. From there we drove through the small town again, and found a backpacker hostel on the far side. Just for grins, we decided to see if they'd have a room for us for the next couple of nights. Sure enough, they did! We booked a double and arranged to be there the next night. Problem solved! One thing we've learned already is that we need to book ahead while in NZ! For the entire trip so far, this has not been necessary (except if we'd needed to find a place in Munich during Oktoberfest - that place books out at least 6 months in advance!). So we then spent our lunchtime planning out where we'd be in the north island for the next 3 weeks so we can book ahead. That will be one stress reducer, as well, since we'll know exactly where to drive to in each town, rather than having to 'shop around' first thing each time. We then hiked around Mt. Maunganui, an extinct volcanic hill. It's only 232 meters high, but has a nice little beach town at its base and an easy walking track all the way around its base. It was a relaxing 45 minute walk around, with some nice views of the harbor and ocean on the backside. We even stumbled across some pretty big tidepools, with good-sized crabs scuttling away as we climbed out toward them. The waves were impressively crashing against the rocks for some nice scenery for photos! By the time we finished the mini hike, we were ready to head back to town in hopes of finding a little cooler to take with us in the car. The one we bought in Australia had a hard interior and we'd left it behind, but we still wanted to be able to take along cold drinks and snacks for the longer drives on our journey. Luckily enough, we found one, and headed home to get some pool time before dark. Glenn immediately donned his bathers and went in the cold pool, then tried to warm up with the intermittent sun (it must have seen him out there, and kept trying to escape into clouds!). I didn't bother - I watched a bit of a movie to relax, and started dinner nice and early so we could make it down to the local bowling alley for some evening fun. We headed down to the Tenpin Bowling Alley around 8pm, rented shoes and had a good ole time competing (that's what Roberts do, and I'll be one soon!). I won't tell you who won, because it DOESN'T MATTER! We had fun. That is the part that counts - always remember this, fellow losers! :) |