Heck it lived up to expectation. Known for having a near constant buzz, the spot that everyone in their 20’s moves to, and generally where all the surfers live, Mount Maunganui is definitely the place to be.

It was our first stop in the road trip, as we were taking part in the Ninja Paddle Games, part of the Waterbourne Festival taking place that weekend. It was such an awesome time to be there, because there was so much going on. We got to watch the pro volleyballers on the beach, as well as the paddle boarding races which were insane (they we’re racing out onto the massive waves!).

The little town was packed but it didn’t seem crowded, it just added to the buzz of the place. Being new to the campervan life, we learnt that you can’t just freedom camp anywhere.. (after a friendly knock from the police at 1am). 😳 Thankfully we didn’t get fined, we just had to move onto a spot where you could freedom camp, which was down on Papamoa Beach. (You can also find spots by looking on CamperMate App or Rankers Camping App). However we actually found that the Mount Maunganui Holiday Park at the end of the beach was a perfect spot & reasonably priced ($25pp for a powered site).

Our camping spot overlooked the beach and was only a two minute walk to the best coffee (Three One One Six, which also had the best looking pastries 🤤). I also noticed this end of the beach was well set up for surfers, with free shower blocks/changing rooms and also outdoor showers too (so you could easily wash your board down).

We luckily managed to jump onto a surf lesson last minute, with Hibiscus Surf School. The lesson helped us so much, Gabriel our surf instructor was awesome and even in pretty hard conditions he was able to help all of us improve massively. If it wasn’t for that lesson I never would have been able to head onto Raglan to surf!

The weather was perfect, we went in mid March and we got to watch both the sunrise and the sunset every, single, day. On our last day we did the famous walk up the mount (you pretty much haven’t been to the mount if you haven’t done the walk, so you’ll need to fit this in). We managed to walk up with the sunrise and it was stunning, 360 views of the mount, looking out to sea and also back to Tauranga. The walkway was basically a motorway though, at all hours of the day people were heading up or back down, literally 11pm at night or 6am!

Of course in true me-style, I can’t leave the restaurants unmentioned. Top of the list was absolutely Master Kong. The best asian food I have ever tasted, with the coolest interior and atmosphere, this would also be a perfect spot for a cocktails night. Another cool restaurant was RiceRiceBaby, a Vietnamese style restaurant, provided in an odd 90’s style dining that somehow worked. (They also have the best instagram profile, definitely check that out).

The mount had pretty much free parking everywhere which was great, but one thing we did learn was that the town seems to close in the afternoon (almost like they have a Siesta?!), so if you’re going for a surf, go early or later, because if you try looking for food 2pm onwards you’re going to be out of luck 😅

We didn’t have a lot of time in the mount, but I’m stoked with what we managed to fit in. With it’s close proximity to other cool towns (such as Rotorua and the Coromandel area only being within an hours radius) it’s a place you could never get bored. My yearly tradition has been to visit Queenstown every winter, but I can really see it changing into a trip to Mount Maunganui every summer 😍

Have you been? Let me know what you thought of it below!

Harriet 📷