November 7, 2023 Tauranga Waterfront (Day 41)
We took a trip into Tauranga, the largest town near us, on an errand. It’s about 30-55 minutes away depending on rush hour. We stopped at a shop to make our purchase, then popped into the Bakery next door for a cappuccino and chai latte, our latest obsessions! It was after 1:30pm so the pies in the hot cases were almost all gone, but the proprietor was happy to make us our drinks. There was one customer eating a pie at a table and we struck up a conversation with both of them. The shop attendant is from Cambodia, and we saw he has posters that he has won competitions for his pies! The customer is a local who has a shop nearby, and a kiwi fruit orchard somewhere in the area. He suggested we go check out the Tauranga Waterfront, and the Fish & Chips Shop at the far end of the ‘strand’. We headed that way with our hot coffee & tea and had a delightful walk despite the extensive construction that is going on in the area and the looming storm clouds.
The town of Tauranga is situated between an estuary and a bay. The Strand is the street fronting the park area along the bay side. It appears pretty calm, with both fishing boats and pleasure boats moored in the bay.
This store front on The Strand looks recently refurbished. It houses a hostel and looks like a pretty nice place to stay!
The park has several sculptures and memorial structures. These carved Maori sculptures represent the Pleiades star cluster.
Another sculpture group is whimsical and fun! Notice the cat slinking in the lower front right corner!
This group commemorates a series of favorite children’s books by a local author, the “Hairy Maclary & Friends” series. The bronze sculptures are of Hairy Maclary and some of his friends – Scarface Claw, Slinky Malinki, Hercules Morse, Muffin McLay, Bottomley Potts, Schnitzel von Krumm, Bitzer Maloney and Zachary Quack. Who’s who I wonder? On our way home we stopped for some grocery shopping in Te Puke (I still giggle every time I say it), the closest place for groceries, 15 min. from the B&B. By the way, the Fish & Chips shop on the waterfront was closed.
Te Puke happens to be the kiwifruit capital of the world! As announced by this huge slice of kiwifruit!
We headed home before the clouds burst, and had a decent sunset before the rain finally arrived overnight.
November 9th, 2023 at 6:32 am
What struck me first about this series of photos is the changing sky. Fascinating.
November 10th, 2023 at 1:41 am
Yes! The storms seem to stall just west of us, we can see them, but they don’t arrive until after dark usually. I expect that a country called “land of the long white cloud” will be cloudy! We’ve had clouds almost everyday, but they change and move constantly!
November 12th, 2023 at 4:11 pm
Must be the difference between east and west in prevailing weather patterns…I need to read up….