Yellow Fish cruises: Day 114: Tauranga

It was another ‘Now or never’ day for us today, as there was one activity remaining we wanted to do Tauranga... actually in the resort town of Mount Maunganui, where the Majestic Princess was berthed. The view on the ship’s webcam channel on our TV showed it was going to be a perfect day for it.

We were having a leisurely breakfast the World Fresh Marketplace when a waiter who looked vaguely familiar came over and said he’d recognized us from a prior year’s cruises. As soon as I saw his name tag- Francis- I remembered exactly who he was. I even found, on my blog, where he had brought me a candle in a muffin for breakfast on my birthday and sang Happy Birthday to me. Check it out: January 8, 2012.

I love that this blog brings back such great memories, and I was so happy to share that post with Francis.

Ship’s webcam this morning

Pilot Bay with the isthmus that is the resort town of Mounr Maunganui with the mountain in the background

We weren’t sure what the temperature was going to feel like today, but we left the ship wearing slacks and long-sleeved T-shirts, more for sun protection than anything. And thickly layered with sunscreen. It was a bright day. It’s easily a half-mile walk from the ship to the base of Mount Maunganui; once there we walked across the isthmus to the ocean side in order to walk around the mountain counter-clockwise. A sign said the path around the base of the mountain would take 50 minutes, but we were in no hurry and spent more than twice that amount of time taking countless photos and sitting on some of the many benches just enjoying the scenery and watching the sea spray.

We walked the path along the base of Mount Maunganui in a counter-clockwise direction

Mount Maunganui Main Beach

The rock formations were beautiful

The path offered coastal views the entire way.

It was a perfect way to spend the day.

These formations were particularly interesting.

Matakana Island in the distance

The path was mostly level with occasional gentle uphills and downhills

Sheep on the mountain

The Behemoth Princess in Tauranga

G took advantage of every gentle uphill section of the path to run in ahead of me. Because of course he did. He knows he has a high altitude trail run in less than six months to train for.

By the time we arrived back at the ship, we’d been walking (or running) for nearly 4 hours and 18000 steps. It felt great to change into shorts and Ts and have a late, very light lunch sitting on the back deck behind the World Fresh Marketplace. I was even able to use cellular data and Skype to phone Mom. She is so busy these days that’s it’s hard to catch her in her apartment, but it was after 9pm her time when I called, so she was there.

We got cleaned up for dinner and ate quickly. The Princess Theater shows tonight were at 6pm and 7:45pm, and we wanted to go to the earlier show so we could watch sail away, scheduled for 6:30pm. The show timing was different tonight to allow passengers to attend Ye Olde Pub Night in the Vista-less Lounge at 9:30pm. We are on Deck 16 watching the beautiful sail away from Tauranga for the last time this season and will go to Pub Night later.