Don & Kully's World Cruise on Viking Neptune

Tauranga is nestled on the Bay of Plenty, approximately 120 miles south of Auckland. Mount Maunganui, an extinct volcano, provides a dramatic over watch of the city and harbor entrance. The Maori arrived here in the 13th century, followed by the British 600 years later. Today, the city is home to a thriving cultural scene and stunning vistas of mountains rising from the surrounding waters. Tauranga is best known as the gateway to the bubbling mud pools, and thermal fields of Rotorua a few miles south of the city. The city also has beautiful beaches along the Pacific Ocean and is a local tourist destination. The Port of Tauranga is also the busiest port in New Zealand; and the Bay of Plenty area is the Kiwi Fruit capital of the world.

Our scheduled excursion wasn’t until 11:00 AM, so we got off the ship early and took a short walk to the beach area and found a lovely little cafe at the base of Mount Maunganui and had coffee and a light breakfast as we watched the early morning hikers on the Mountain paths. We walked through the small shopping center as we made our way back to the ship to join our scheduled tour.

The tour we took was the Viking included tour; “Scenic Bay of Plenty.” We boarded a bus where we heard a narrative about the city of Tauranga and the bustling port. We then headed out through the countryside enroute to Te Puke, this is New Zealand’s premier region for the production of the nation’s most famous fruit, the Kiwi. To our surprise Kiwi grow on vines and from a distance almost look like grape vineyards, but at a closer look the vines are much larger than grape vines. 

After driving through several Kiwi farms and past processing facilities we stopped at a local village community hall where we were offered refreshments and samples of various Kiwi products. A local Kiwi farmer gave a presentation explaining how Kiwi are grown, the different products produced with Kiwi and the health benefits of the products. Members of the local Maori tribe welcomed us and then provided an example of Maori traditional song and dance. Of course, we were given the opportunity to buy some to the Kiwi related products and souvenirs prior to boarding our bus to return to the ship. We really enjoyed the tour because it gave us the opportunity to see a more rural part of New Zealand, and regardless of where we go, we are absolutely stunned by the beauty of this place.

Tomorrow we will visit our next port of call Napier, New Zealand.

“A journey of 1000 miles begins with a single step.” Lao Tzu