I’m down in Tauranga for the week having a lovely time really enjoying the weather. Normally when I go away for work I walk around the place taking photos and generally playing tourist – but this time I got to meet up with a friend I used to work with back in 1986 in the ANZ Bank. Thanks to Facebook we have recently reconnected and have met up a couple of times.

My friend lives in Tauranga so I’ve been lucky to have someone to meet up with for lunch and after work. Last night my friend suggested we go for a walk up Mount Maunganui before having dinner, which was such a cool idea coz last week while thinking about my time in Tauranga I was contemplating climbing the Mount as it’s something I’ve wanted to do most of my life but never have. And when I say most of my life I really do mean that, my Grandmother lived in Mt Maunganui and as a very young kid school holidays were often spent down here.

I should have known to dress for a big hike when she sent a text message telling me to bring my camera and a bottle of water, but oh no, I dressed appropriately for dinner! As I drove towards the mountain I started thinking oh dear the Mount looks a lot bigger than I remembered it. But I made it all the way to the top. I couldn’t believe how many people were running up and down the mountain it’s obviously a very popular thing to do after work and I was the most over dressed person on the mountain. So I’m really glad my friend suggested it, coz if she wasn’t there, there is no way I would have walked up the Mount.

At the bottom of the Mount I noticed the sign telling people the beach is open but to watch out for oil, because of the recently shipwrecked container ship. I was actually hoping to photograph the ship while down here, I did see it, but it’s too far away to photograph without a decent zoom lens.

And on my first night here I discovered a shopping mall on the main street of downtown Tauranga called Goddards – how cool is that, but no I’m not related.