When the snow is falling outside, and you are freezing your butt off every time you step out of the door, it’s really hard to pack for a trip to New Zealand summer. Every fiber of your body wants to make sure you won’t be cold, and as a result, you pack too many warm clothes, and not enough cool clothes. If my clothes are too warm, I can live with it – I might even like it. Jan, not so much. And that is how Jan decided to check out the end of summer clothing sales, while I went on one of my favourite walks in Mount Maunganui. But once again, I’m getting ahead of myself. Here is a picture of the setting sun last night from our hotel room. I quite enjoy the view.

After our breakfast and lattes, our first stop was the Mount Hot Pools where we booked massages. All this hard work has us both in need of some relaxing. On a more serious note, all the walking has us both feeling a little stiff, so a massage sounded like just the ticket. With that out of the way, I was off on my walk while Jan set out to address her wardrobe misalignment problem.

My goal was to walk to the top of Mount Maunganui, but there are two ways you can do that. The right way, from my perspective, is to walk up along the path, which is longer, but doesn’t have steps, and then walk down using the steps. The wrong way is to do it the other way around, like I did the first time I was here. Along the way you are treated to views of the “not-so-wild-life” and the pleasant scenery.

As always in New Zealand, there are interesting sculptures along the way.

And interesting plants – in this case another one of those noxious invasive species, but it’s pretty, in spite of that.

And when you get to the top, stunning views over the town and the beach that goes on forever.

Then it is time to head down, and after taking all the steps down (being thankful that you aren’t walking up), there is a lovely walk around the base of the Mount. It’s fairly flat with a cool breeze, the path is mostly shaded, and you can hear the sound of the surf breaking on the rocks all the way. If it gets any better than this, I haven’t found it yet.

After lunch and our massages, I went for another barefoot walk along beach. This never gets old.

And then it was time for Monday Beer Club, another candidate for as good as it gets.

Okay, one other candidate. Here is a picture of Jan at dinner, wearing her new (beautiful) summer dress.