Tauranga and Couchsurfing

On Monday, our journey continued from Coromandel to Tauranga. Instead of booking a room in a hostel, we found a free place to stay through the Couchsurfing website. Craig, the New Zealander we are currently staying with, allows us to stay with him for three nights for free. Normally, people on Couchsurfing offer their couch in their apartment to sleep on, but Craig doesn't have an apartment or a house. He sells carpets and flooring and lives in his showroom/warehouse. He told us that he thought long and hard about it and ultimately decided that he doesn't have a problem living like this and that he prefers to spend the money he saves on traveling. You have to prioritize, but I couldn't live like this in the long term. However, it's great to have a free place to stay there for three nights.

Yesterday we climbed Mount Maunganui, one of the must-sees here in Tauranga. We were really lucky with the weather, it had only rained in the days before, but when we reached the top of the mountain, it was sunny.