We plopped ourselves down at Mt. Maunganui Beachside Holiday Park for three nights following our stay at Opoutere Coastal Camping. Two tent camping experiences on the Coromandel Peninsula, both memorable & fun, but unique in their own ways.
Stops En Route
Between Opoutere and Mt. Maunganui we made two pit-stops: lunch and coffee. Lunch was picnic style, the way we've rolled all Summer. Lunch staples that fall into two camps:
- Peanut butter/jelly/crackers/appples/nuts
- Medley of tortillas/hummus/cucumber/carrot/sesame seeds/sesame oil.
It's never hard to find a shady spot with a nice view here in NZ.
Our coffee stop was to a sweet little shack called The Mermaid's Beach House that my dear friend, Isabel, recommended from their Dec 2019 family trip through NZ. It made for a wee detour, but it was totally worth it to feel a connection with a friend I miss :) Oat milk latte for me, kombucha for the girls.
Epic Location Overall
Mt. Maunganui Beachside Holiday Park sits nestled at the base of Mt. Maunganui's iconic mountain, Mauao (or "The Mount" to locals), which is an extinct volcanic cone at the end of a peninsula. The campsite also abuts Mt. Maunganui's main beach on one side and its harbor on the other side. Bonus: It was walking distance into the main town shops/restaurants and an awesome town playground. A location that is near impossible to match!
The campsite facilities were great. Everything we needed and exceptionally clean. That's impressively been the case of all the campsites we've stayed at in NZ. Come to think of it, even the public toilets in the most random, remote locations during our road trips have also been impeccably clean. Kudos to NZ!
Tent Bust Location
We checked in and were assigned plot 65 in the Harbour Park section. "Any plots closer to the beach?" I asked? Nope, they're full. Note to self: look at campsite maps for high-demand locations and request precise plot when booking!
We pulled up to our spot and were disappointed to find there was barely any grass; it was virtually all a hard, dirt/dust covered surface. Not exactly a comfy sleeping surface! I went back to reception and asked (politely) if there was any way possible to switch to a different plot, given the less-than-ideal spot we were given. Nope, still full. Apparently I'm a glutton for punishment :)
Accepting our destiny, we got to work setting up our tent. We all have sleeping mats, so the hard surface itself didn't end up being an issue. Under normal weather circumstances, it would have been fine. BUT . . . We "lucked out" with some uncharacteristically strong winds the whole time we were there. This meant we had a layer of fine dirt literally ALL over every inch of our sleeping mats, sleeping bags, clothes, shoes, you name it! Just a case of bad luck, given every other plot (believe me, we walked around a bunch) in the campsite was perched atop fine grass :) Made for a more memorable experience, playing my "glass half full" card.
The Mount
We took full advantage of our location adjacent to Mt. Maunganui, which had multiple trails to explore, including one that went around the perimeter of the mountain base, and several others that weaved up to the summit.
The views from the mountain were nothing short of spectacular! Doug took early morning runs and I took early evening walks (I tweaked my right foot somehow; too sore to run). I would absolutely LOVE to live near a trail with stunning views like these. WOW. And it was so cool to see so many locals out taking advantage of the trails.
There was a big marathon/triathlon event the first morning we were there. When we arrived & saw signs posted all over town, Doug looked into running the half marathon but found the registration details literally 15 minutes after registration had closed. We enjoyed watching the runners speed by as we munched on our morning oatmeal :)
Late one morning the four of us hiked one of the trails up to the Mt. Maunganui summit. Gorgeous!
Afterwards we rested our legs at an awesome picnic lunch spot, a nook surrounded by seashell beach, rocks and water lapping in.
Shop & Bounce 'Til We Drop
We split up with the girls one afternoon. Paige & I moseyed into town to shop. We didn't have any big plans to buy much, but it was fun to pop into some of homegoods and surf shops and compare opinions of the products we liked best. I've been on the prowl for a "trucker" hat to shield me from some of the harsh sun rays. I ended up finding one that got approval from both me & P-Bo. As a treat Paige got a real fruit ice cream. They're a "thing" throughout all of NZ, as we've learned this Summer. Vanilla ice cream or frozen yogurt, blended with the frozen fruit/berry of your choice. Our collective favorite this Summer has been tart cherry. Yum!
Meanwhile Sadie & Doug took a leisurely walk along the beach and happened upon a bouncy trampoline contraption. Instead of a sweet treat, Sadie opted to take a turn on these, bouncing up to the sky with a huge smile on her face :) Side note: Sadie loved it so much that we went back the following day with both girls. Huge hit and serious seasonal money maker.
1:1 parent:kiddo time scores high marks for all of us!
We haven't been eating out much this Summer. We've leaned into campsite and AirBnB rental cooking. In Wellington we were in a hotel so we ate out 24/7, but otherwise our meals out have been few & far between. We decided to eat out one night in Mt. Maunganui. We opted for a Vietnamese spot called Rice Rice Baby. The servers were so snobby! They all had such attitudes. The food itself was so/so. We left feeling super disappointed we'd spent the time & money for such a subpar meal/experience. Can't win them all!
Hair Wraps
As an approaching-end-of-Summer treat we let the girls get hair wraps. They're temporary which is nice; in theory they can put them back in on the weekends, after we remove them for the start of school in a week or so. Paige opted for a black & white one, and Sadie for a more colorful aqua/pink/black combo one. They were ecstatic and love their new Summer locks look :) I enjoyed immensely chatting in Spanish with "Bernie", the woman doing the wraps. She's originally from Chile (and I explained that I lived with an exchange family there back in high school in the early 1990s), but has been living in NZ for 16 years. She was lovely to chat with, and even though I fumbled through my Spanish at times, I genuinely enjoyed speaking the language again. I miss being fluent in Spanish, and would love to get back into a more conversational groove. Maybe that's something for me to pursue back in Queenstown :)
Mt. Maunganui Miscellaneous
Great seashells on the beach. Each girl left with a handful of special ones.
Spent one morning inside the campground facilities, sheltered from the fierce winds. The girls did school workbooks and us adults worked on research/bookings for upcoming (hereto unplanned) stints in our travels.
A stray campsite kitten took to hanging out at our campsite and the one adjacent to ours. The girls were loving it and we had to constantly say no to the question of whether we could take the kitten home with us.
The girls befriended an Aucklander named Jasmine camping a few spots down from us. On our final morning while Doug & I dismantled the tent and packed everything up, the three girls were playing with Jasmine's fart machine. It was controlled via remote control. Let's just say many a patrons of the Mt. Maunganui Beachside Holiday Park got a surprise that morning. The girls were in stitches!
"Yeah nah" is NZ slang that you hear all the time. It basically means "kind of". People say it when they agree with someone, but equally when they don't. Equal parts non-committal and non-offensive. This was one of our neighbor's chairs :)
All in, Mt. Maunganui was 100% worth the stop! Beautiful little nook that I'd highly recommend & would return to in an instance, especially for the easy access to the gorgeous Mount trails. Next time we'll request a beach view site, and hope for little to no winds :)
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