Tauranga

We had a lovely day for our first day ashore. We didn't hear or feel the ship moving from Auckland to The Port of Tauranga which is actually at Mt Maunganui 4 km from Tauranga.  Another huge cruise ship the Nordaam was in port too so there would have been at least 4000 extra people seeing the sights in Tauranga and places further afield like Rotorua.  

We got the local bus in to Tauranga, forgetting to flash my gold card so paid for the trip but remembered on the way back after we had visited the Art Gallery,the library and The Elms, a very early mission house, built by Archdeacon Brown who came to the area in the 1830s. It was a lovely old house, full of antiques dealer artefacts.  A very knowledgable guide  showed us around house library and garden.

It was a long hot walk into town where we got a bus back to the ship where we indulged in a very late buffet lunch.