We walked from the ship and around part of the base of the mountain then up a steep road to the top. Quite a view. Took a few photos although only on my phone and I unwittingly ran out of space so a few didn't keep. It was odd being poised simultaneously high above the inland port, oceanside beaches and town.
We carefully made our way back down then wandered through the closest shops and had some gelati - having managed to completely overlook the shop that did the local NZ ice cream (oh der).
Mt Maunganui is quite reminiscent of Mandurah, being clearly a seaside holiday place that has developed and now has some very upmarket accommodation. However at the mountain end is a caravan park, where they were re-drawing the caravan bay markings - clearly preparing for a summer holiday rush in a week or two. The general layout - of land, bridges, docks, islands, mountain, towns, ports and water channels is confusing both at land level and from the mountain top. I may have to use Google-Earth back at home to make sense of it.
Most of the tours for this port of call were to Rotarua but as we've both been there we opted for a quiet local wander. That means we also didn't go to the nearby large town of Tauranga.
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