Friday I-Wish-I-Were-There (Bay of Plenty, NZ)

Welcome to my Friday I-Wish-I-Were-There Blog.
Today I’m off to New Zealand’s Bay of Plenty, a lush stretch of native bush covered hills and beautiful beaches. We visited around New Years, and the summer weather was just amazing.

Highlights.
Maraenui. A tiny little settlement, too small to even be a village, we still found a little paradise here. With our 5th wheel caravan parked right beside a stony beach we spent hours wandering along it, playing with the driftwood and making forts, teaching the kids how to skip stones and enjoying the isolation of being nearly the only ones in this lovely place. On our final morning in Maraenui our host rushed down to tell us there were a pod of Pilot whales moving across the bay and what a thrill watching them in our binoculars.

Omaio. A little village, popular with the tourists, a short drive from Maraenui. Our kids had a fabulous time swimming and enjoying an ice-cream from the local shop afterwards.

Opotiki. Another gorgeous beach to go swimming in (this time we’d bought the kids some boogie boards for the surf) but sadly, our two kids were too chicken to take part in the 130 meter downhill mudslide—personally I can’t blame them, it looked really scary!

We enjoyed our summer holiday in the Bay of Plenty. It was a wonderful opportunity to get away from the bustle and non-stop noise of the city, the electronics and the ‘mum, can I play on the computer’ and just spend time playing with our kids in the sand and sunshine.

Tracey