Mount Maunganui

Mount Maunganui is our first outing place after we arrived at Te Puke. Mt Maunganui is situated in the city of Tauranga in the Bay of Plenty region of New Zealand. Mt Maunganui is New Zealand's favourite summer holiday destination with its white sandy surf beach on the ocean side, and a safe sheltered inner harbour beach.

Mount Maunganui is also the name of the extinct volcano which rises above the town. Shrouded in history and legend. Mount Mainstreet shopping centre is well placed to provide for their every need including boutique shops, quality restaurants and cafes.


There are lots of boat park at the bottom of the mount

Mt Maunganui's 3.4km base track is a natural playground for fitness and enjoying fabulous views and native trees and animals.


flock of sheep enjoying their fresh grasses here


The track allows walkers and joggers to pass by scenery ranging from remote beaches to rocky cliffs. You can see nice scenery along the way to the summit
the mountain is a dominant feature of the landscape.

The track takes about 30 minutes for those who are relatively fit, and efforts are rewarded with stunning 360 degree views of the Pacific Ocean, nearby islands and the wider Bay of Plenty region.

A climb to the summit offers amazing views of the surrounding city and ocean.

Look at there!

We're on our way back down the hill

Beach with the pristine sands have long been the first choice for holidaymakers

unknown marine creature found on the beach

Tongariro Alpine Crossing- the best volcano crossing in NZ

23 March 08
Tongariro Alpine crossing is an 18km, 8 hour trek in an alpine environment rising to 1886m. It's one of the best one day walks across a volcano within Tongariro National Park, the World Heritage Area. The weather changes dramatically & quickly & you need to be fit, healthy & well prepare before starting out. After all, it's a challenging & tiring track. We arrived in Turangi, a town near to Tongariro National Park a day before. 5 of us(Winston, Eric, Louis, Jaden & me) stayed at a BBH in Turangi, that's wasn't many people stay there. I met 2 Dutch, Dennis & Kay and they will do the crossing the next day too. Due to the track has to start in early morning, we woke up early at 6am to prepare our breakfast & lunch to catch the bus depart on 7am.

our bus arrived at the starting point of Tongariro National Park, Mangatepopo car park.

There were many groups of people went for the tramping today. The driver briefed us on the route of the track and things to be caution before we arrived. There were only 3 toilets along the whole track, one is located at start point, another one is located half an hour walking distance, and the 3^rd is located at the car park which is ending point of the track. To avoid to pee in the barren land, we got no choice to have long queue up for the bad smelly toilet which without water supply.

My journey begin from this point
We started our track at around 9am, most of the people had already departed. We have an easy hike up the valley to Soda Spring, so we walk slowly & took pictures along the way. We speed up until we realized we were the last group.

this is the beginning part of the track with some volcanic flora, wooden pathway heading toward to Soda Spring.

the most difficult part has come - this is called Devils Staircase, the 一波又一波的steep staircase makes you pant & sweat/ climbed up to top of rock/vastness earth 浩瀚的大地

Help~~~~ /

We were at the entry to South Crater once we got to the top of the Devils Staircase. The South Crater is nice & easy as it is dead flat, so we took our lunch break here.

We continued & walked through the big land/

One of the movie spot of Lord of the Ring/

volcano gorge


When we get to another side of South Crater, we were at the base of the "Red Crater Ridge", that is our last big climb for the day.

It was quite difficult to climb up to the slippery rockiness mountain as this section is steep & has big drop on either side. The bottom of the ridge has marks the Point of No Return. That's mean if you are having trouble or difficulty for any reason, or if the weather is bad & you feel you need to get down, this is the place to do it. The scree are loose and slippery, we have to use both hands & legs to crawl up. One of our friend slipped & hurt his leg during climbing.

Nice view of Mt. Tongariro, the view at the peak is great / A summit sidetrack to Mt. Tongariro

Red crater behind me/ At the top of the Red Crater is the summit of the main track, there is a tough challenge waiting for us after the summit.

The track to go down from the Red Crater is loose scree, the poor footing on this track are a serious hazard. It was scary to get down from here because if you fall to the edge and you will never return.

I was released after the down the hill (my legs were sore), the beautiful Emerald Lakes are at the bottom. The water is so clear and in crystal blue.

I found the Ring! I'm lord of the ring now. Hehe.

We follow the track to Central Crater after the Emerald lakes, it's a flat & easy get through crater.

We reached the Blue lake, another huge volcano lake. Then, from here we follow the track down the Rotopaunga valley.


Before we down to the north face to the Ketetahi Hut, we need to tramp across a bush. I nearly paralyzed here after tramping for so many hours. Eric, Jaden & I encouraged each others to keep going.

Finally, I made it! We were able to catch the last bus at 5pm. Everyone was exhausted after 8 hours trek. I was proud of myself for completed this mission.

能完成这次的健行，我真的为自己感到骄傲，很有满足感。这是平时很少运动的我，来到纽西兰后第一次这么激烈的活动。之前一直很想去爬KK的神山，可都没机缘。这次的火山行让我对以后的神山行更有信心了。这也大概是我在纽西兰最棒的健行了。（虽然之后全身痛了好几天）