The Maunganui Splash

Kia Ora!

After his successful adventures a few weeks ago, Captain Scott and I set out on a hitchhiking adventure. Our destination- Mount Maunganui, Tauranga. Another welcome trip out of Auckland :-)
We left Friday afternoon and picked a spot near the beginning of the motorway in Auckland. We made ourselves a sign and we were off!

Fool proof, right? Well, it turns out Auckland is a hard place to get out of and after nearly two hours of trying, we realised hitchhiking probably wasn't going to work; my first hitchhiking adventure was going to have to wait. Instead we booked a last minute ticket on NakedBus (for those of your wondering, it's a company name and not a requirement to get a seat) and our adventure began again!

We made it to Mount Mauganui quite late as the coach ride took over four hours. But on the second leg we met Siri and Oreet, who were remarkably aiming for the same hostel we were. We ended up spending the weekend with them, climbing Mount Maunganui and enjoying the beach!

Mount Maunganui- the view from our hostel

Down Maunganui Road

Moderate fire risk, always nice to see at the start of the trail

Me and Scott at the summit

Watch me crank that Soulja Boy, then Super Man

The view from Mount Maunganui

And another view

And another :-)

Scott found some rocks good for a contemplative photo

View from some rocks at the base of Mt Maunganui

One of many crabs we found in the rock pools

Me, my camera and the blue, blue sea!

Climbing the rocks was the highlight of the day. I took so many more photos then I'm showing here. In case it wasn't coming across, it was a really hot weekend and the one day was all I needed to tan (you can see when comparing my hitchhiking photo with the others). And it got more memorable. At the base of some other rocks I made a new friend. My 10 legged starfish. I got a good starfish-selfie (A stelfie?!).

Such a nice day. And then...

In a rare moment I lost my footing and fell in the sea. Boots, bag, phone. Just the lot. Right next to my new friend. And there it was, my first swim in the Pacific Ocean. I lost my sunglasses and my phone inevitably in my pocket got ruined. Its a good job it was only $9, so now I've bought two more to be on the safe side in future haha. But for the photos I got, I'd say it was worth it!

A Starfish selfie - a Stelfie!

A very wet me...

But the adventures continued after a quick shower, just bare foot and very light :-)

On the way home we had more luck with the hitchiking. We traveled with three different drivers, all really nice, genuine guys. We even got the phone number of one of them who offered another trip if ever he came to Auckland. They were all so nice. And we had plenty of time to chat and see the scenic route home. We also stopped at a gold mining quarry because our driver thought we'd like to see it. In Paeroa we hitchhiked near a gypsy fair. Naturally we decided to try and catch our final ride next to this sign...

You're nearly up to date now. Just one more short post- then I will try and be a bit more punctual with my blog.

Share with me one of my sunglasses last moments. So sad, but they're on a new adventure...

And no, I don't think I have attachment problems...

They were good sunglasses though.

Kia Ora,

Ben