Tauranga, Bay of Plenty, New ZealandTauranga
We visit NZ’s 5th
biggest city: Tauranga
- We discovered it is big because we stood yesterday in the traffic jam and again today
- Here is NZ’s busiest port with petrol refineries, lumber and cranes (and yes, a cruise port)
- Tauranga Harbour is a natural tidal harbour and in Feb 1826 the first European ship entered it
- It is also one of NZ’s fastest growing cities with a 20 % increase from 2013-2018. In 1976 it was still a medium sized urban area with 48.000 people, today over 160.000 people live here
Classics Flyer Museum
- It is not a very old museum, as in 2000 several local business man who loved aviation decided to renovate the WWII hangar at the Tauranga airport and it did open in 2005
Ok we already liked it, you are
welcomed and we got both seniors discount (that was super nice), then a guy
came and gave us a bit of a run-down on the museum and talked a lot to Paul,but what was really cool he went with us in
another hangar behind the allowed areas and we could see the planes they still
use for flying.
- I thought it super cool as one of the over 100-year-old planes is privately owned and you can fly in it for a prize – and Gine learned it is so expensive to fly in those planes first they need a lot of gas like 100 liters an hour, and also those old machines need a lot and lot of maintenance to be still able to fly.
- One of the best playgrounds: they put an old helicopter and some old planes in there and you have a slide coming out of a plane, there is a tunnel going into a plane, as well as a lot of little planes to sit in and roll around (what a shame that it is all age restricted!!!)
- We saw one of the Skyhawks, which was a plane from an aircraft carrier from 1954-79 they built 2960 of those, and we got pointed out, that they required the hook for landing:to do so as it was not automated the pilot had to speed up during landing until the hook was in and the speed stop. The plane we saw had 500 take off and landings done.
- When needing a rest Paul was sitting in some old seats from the NAC plane at that time there were still foot rests!!!
- We saw a model from a Twin Mustang (and yes, they actually built some): we wondered how that works as it is like a tandem plane…. So who is in charge of flying
- we walked up ladders to look into cockpits – at one time Gine climbed into the cockpit (Paul decided it is too small for him and too much climbing)
- Paul was super impressed by an engine!!! Because it is a 28-cylinder engine making over 4000 hp and one of those huge planes has I think 8 of them (as per the guy there is one of the planes in the Portland museum) – they built those in WWII, and it is the largest displacement aviation piston engine to be made.
- Catalina flying boat: so that is a super machine – we could go up the steps and actually walk inside, hold a machine gun, sit down on the site like we are going up in the air, and go all they way to the front and see the cockpit: they were built during WWII and used for search and rescue, after the war it was used as a water bomber.
- B 17 Fortress: they got it in 2019 from a movie set and you can walk through it(ok Paul can’t stand upright) and the doors are a bit of climbing: super cool we walked all the way to the front and nearly banged our heads to sit in the pilot and co-pilot seat, see the mini kitchen and dining area as well as two beds oh and the bombs – I mean that is truly a lot of fun.
It is not a big museum – but a lot
of fun!!!!
Robins Park
Now we are heading into the
downtown area, our first stop was along Robin park, where we checked out some
harbour views and the rose garden, as we walked around we discovered two huge
cactus – one was super weird and super amazing. As well we discovered that
there is a tropical house and went inside to check out the hot humid tropical
plants – very cool!!!
Right here is also Monmoth
Redoubt: with a few huge Pohutukawa trees – originally here was a pa, and the British
troops were also stationed here at one time – today it is the hangout of some
bums, and that means we didn’t linger very long.
At the food bridge
Gine was thinking about parking in
the huge parking lot near Herries Park with the arch: but guess what: it is
under construction!!! And all other parking spots were occupied (and also it is
paid parking – what!!! Are we in a city????). We drove by and saw the arch, the
ship made of plants, as well a lot of fancy eating places with fancy people –
as we drove all to the end we saw a huge bridge which is a combination of a
train bridge with a food bridge near it – super cool, we parked and walked up
to have some nice views on the harbour – it was definitely a lot of fun even we
would have loved it more if a train would have come.
I may should mention that on the
way back we were stuck in a traffic jam on the bridge which gave Gine a lot of
time to check out the harbour and see there today is a Princess Cruise Ship in
port.
Relaxing at Papamoa Beach
The weather forecast said cloudy
and rain today, but by now the sun is out and we decided we saw enough of the
city and headed to Papamoa beach: we sat on the great benches overlooking the
beach and the sand dunes relaxing and reading. Then heading back for a coffee
break and meeting our landlords (he is from Switzerland) and then checked out a
few more areas along the beach and came back to our favorite spot – what a
great beach. And we always can see the huge dormant volcano in the back.
Paul meets Heidi
Our landlords have a cat called
Heidi (a typical Swiss name after the famous story of Heidi from the Alm) and
Paul made friends with her – even gave her some roast beef, super cute. We
learned that she walks with them all the way to the beach (no leash)
We have a Pizza from “Hell”
When thinking about what we should
have for supper we decided to have pizza and they have a real funky pizza place
as it is called hell – and the door said “welcome to hell” – they even have the
pizza’s named after the seven sins: Lust – Envy – Greed – Wrath – Pride –
Gluttony – Creator. We order two snack pizzas and they were super yummy!!!! I
mean what can you say when you have a “morning after pizza”.
2025-05-23