Tauranga and visit to Pete & Lou's avocado farm

Morning Pic

After a 'Christian' night, we start our day with Ham & Eggs as an Advent breakfast at Mount Maunganui in Tauranga. Since today is Sunday, there are a lot of people here. The weather is nice, so we walk along the beach towards Mount Maunganui.

I don't know how many steps there are, but it feels like we are climbing the whole mountain on a single staircase. Quite a sweaty affair. However, we are rewarded with a fantastic view.

By the way, this is what New Zealand Christmas trees (Pohutukawa trees) look like. 🎄🎄

We continue to Katikati, the avocado center of New Zealand. Here we want to visit Pete and Lou, whom we met 4 years ago in Moab, USA. We stay for coffee and also get a tour of the

It's incredible what grows here besides avocados. And I didn't know what avocado trees look like.

Pete picks lemons from the tree for us, and Lou also gives us some freshly cut vegetables from her garden.

It's a dream how the two of them live here with a one million dollar view of the Pacific.

We say goodbye and continue along the Bay of Plenty to Waihi Beach, where we immediately find a free parking space behind the dunes at the beach. Unfortunately, it's pouring rain again.

The evening turns out to be nice and we take a long walk on the deserted beach.

Next to us are 4 guys from Germany who are traveling for 6 months. We give away some avocados since we can't eat them all.

In the evening, an inspector actually comes to check the signs on the vans and takes note of the license plate number, as you can only stay here for a maximum of 3 days. This is the first time we experience this in NZ, but who knows, maybe we were always sleeping 😴?