The Bay of Plenty and Rotorua... yup, we're still in New Zealand!

Nope, we haven’t left New Zealand yet, but have travelled further south east seeing more of the area.  We had plans that we would have NO PLANS for this first full day of the cruise.  I mean, we’d been going, going, going before now and would just veg out today.  Guess what? That didn’t happen!  We decided to go for a walk which ended up in a bit of a hike

We headed out and could see Mount Maunganui’s mountain, Mauao.  Actually, not a mountain like we think of mountains, but the natives called it a mountain.  You can see it for miles around.  Anyway, we started walking towards it and found there was a trail up to the summit.  Okay, we can do that.  It was definitely not a walk for a casual stroll.  But, it was worth it. Views were spectacular and the as hard as the trip up was, the trip down was more stairs and pathways than I could count.

Got back to the boat about lunchtime… and that’s where we headed after we cooled down, the cafe!  Heck, all that walking makes one feel less guilty about the food on this trip!!!!  Oh, and how far did we walk… Thanks to fitbits, we can tell you… 13,177 steps, 75 stories and 5 ¼ miles… 

Starting off showing our success....

Sheep with million dollar views they probably don't even appreciate!

 Here's that statue, in the middle of nowhere, zoomed in!  Maori Fisherman!

 Just starting our walk up the mount.... looking back at our ship!

Now we were starting to circumnavigate the Mount;  

 Starting to see the great Pacific Ocean!

 Got to here, thought we were at the top.... NOOOOOO, we weren't!

 Climbing on and on

 and on

 Are we there yet?   NOPE!!! but time for a selfie!

 Someone saw us struggling, so, they took one

 Now we are at the top... looking down on the small town!

 The top!

 We went down a different way... soooooooo many steps!

 We did it!