A long holiday weekend of many parts

We have a public holiday in New Zealand today; Labour day.

To be quite honest, I’m not sure what the history of it is but all I care is that it gets me a day off work and we got a long weekend to go away in the Kiwi Blog Bus!

For the first day we travelled to one of our favourite handy FREE spots: Ferguson Park, Otumoetai near Tauranga.

I relax the minute we drive into the park. The place is fairly busy; lots of people enjoying themselves and making the most of the sunshine and the Saturday.
It’s a popular picnic and paddling area  and has great views of the inner harbour, with Rangwaea and Matakana Islands and the towering Mount Maunganui not so far away.

The strong winds in this corner of Tauranga make this a popular spot for Kiteboarding and while you wouldn’t catch me launching myself into the ocean with a HUGE kite propelling me along at a rate of knots – I very much enjoy watching the guys & gals that have mastered this amazing sport.

Large sports field at Ferguson Park  – spot the kite in the tree?!

We parked the Kiwi Blog Bus up beside the water and after a spot of lunch decided to head off on our bikes (I felt inspired and wanted to do SOMETHING sporty!).

The bike path follows the water’s edge and alternates between quiet residential roads and public parks. It feels very safe and is very enjoyable.
(The next few pics were taken on my phone so the quality isn’t so great)

Harbour/ Port view

As well as the natural scenery and harbour surrounds, I thoroughly enjoyed being able to house-gaze as I  cycled along!
There are so many houses of ALL types, sizes and varieties.
This is one of the funny things I love about New Zealand; you hardly ever go along a street that has boring, repeated same same same houses- here they can range from the most basic of wooden sheds right beside an art-deco classic or modern stylish glass-laden magazine cover dwelling.

We cycled over the bridge to get some groceries from the shops and then headed back to our spot at Ferguson Park – did I mention it was FREE ?!

The afternoon finished with a play on the beach and a spot of kite watching – this was one amazing kite, I could have watched it all day – much better than fireworks!

We moved on the next day to another of our favourite free waterside spots.
Look out for my next blog post to see where we got to. Ciao!