Christmas in the Bay

We depart Auckland for the speciality shops of Cambridge and Tirau before a visit to Wingspan in Paradise Valley, the home of native birds of prey. We then take a little tiki tour of Rotorua to Ohinemutu Maori village, the Museum gardens and Kuirau Park. In the afternoon we head to our hotel on the shores of Lake Rotoiti our home for the next two nights. 

We take a leisurely sightseeing  tour out past the Green and Blue Lakes to Lake Tarawera before heading back to the hotel for a Christmas lunch.

In the afternoon we drive around Lake Rotorua to ride on the Skyline gondola for views of Lake Rotorua and its steaming geothermal landscape. Later we visit beautiful Hamurana Spring, the deepest freshwater spring in the North Island. We dine in at the hotel this evening.  

We stroll down to Okawa Bay on the shores of Lake Rotoiti and board the luxury catamaran “Tiua” to explore the lake, cruising the bays. Returning to Okawa we head towards Tauranga taking a guided tour of a hidden gem, The Elms mission homestead completed in 1847 and surrounded by gardens of National Significance. We dine in at Trinity Wharf on the harbour's edge this evening.

After a leisurely breakfast we drive across to Mount Maunganui to stroll along the beach boardwalk and around “the Mount”. We tour down to Papamoa to check out this fast-growing beachside town.

At Awakeri Station we meet Paul and hop on board rail carts for a scenic ride along the tracks towards Taneatua. We head back to Tauranga for a relaxed afternoon.

Leaving Tauranga we travel a pretty back country road which leads to the Waterlily Gardens for lunch and a wander among the waterlily ponds. After lunch we travel through the Karangahake Gorge where rusting machinery is the only sign of its fascinating gold-mining past. At the Victoria Battery local guide George shows us through the Mining Museum’s collections. We return to Auckland over the Hauraki Plains.