Omokoroa & Environs

The weekend of Friday 18th October we decided to explore the inner harbour, closer to home, so heading west from Tauranga we travelled just a few miles to Snodgrass Rd - a great place for buying unrefridgerated avocados from the roadside stalls for only $2 for a bag of 5-6 or a bag of beautiful NZ oranges for $3. Waitui Reserve is nestled on the edge of the harbour at the end of the road where there is a popular little boat ramp for the locals, a toilet and space in the car park for 3 motorhomes to stay overnight for no more than 2 nights. It's a beautiful, peaceful spot with just the sound of birds and the lapping water at high tide apart from the occasional fishing boat. There was just one other bus parked and we enjoyed a couple of short walks around the harbour edge and up into the little housing settlement before settling in for the night.

Posted in Waitui Reseve!

The next day which was still sunny and warm despite being rather windy we headed a little further around the harbour to Omokoroa which was originally a little harbourside holiday settlement but, being only 20 minutes from Tauranga, it has grown into a little commuter or retirement village with a population of nearly 3,000 and growing fast.

T & Flower Pot men outside an Omokoroa home!

Again, 3 vehicles are allowed to park overnight in the large boat trailer parking area next to the Domain, for a maximum of 2 nights. There were 2 vehicles already there but they actually moved on later in the afternoon being replaced by 2 others that stayed overnight. It's a lovely spot and we did the lovely walk up the steps from the Domain to Harbour View Rd and round to the harbour edge where we followed the cliff top path, past all the houses with their spectacular views, back to the Domain and bus. That evening, after dinner, we wandered over the road to the Boating Club to watch the live screening of the last of the Bledisloe Cup matches between the All Blacks and Australia, the score itself of 41- 33 (to the ABs!) reflecting what a great running game it was to watch. However with only about a dozen of us watching - in the dining room as we weren't allowed in the member's area - we were really quite a quiet bunch.
On the Sunday we played golf on the picturesque Omokoroa course which sits on the harbours edge and on other sides is fringed by nice houses some of which are magnificently huge and surrounded by vast lawns. We wonder however if some of them are overseas owned as there a little sign of life and a lot of the curtains are drawn.
After golf we drove to Pahoia Domain, another lovely little spot right on the water where 3 vans are allowed overnight. It was very tepting to stay but instead we decided to head back closer to town and down Plummer's Point Rd to the Kotuku Recreation Reserve which was a very bad move. The parking area is very small and with a caravan and small motorhome already parked there was no room to turn around, making a very long backing manoeuvre for us to return to the start of the road. We have no idea how the caravan would even have got out. We could look over the water to our Friday night park at Waitui Reserve and see that there were just 2 vehicles parked there so we made a beeline there in time to be the 3rd and last allowed to stay the night. We enjoyed Happy Hour with Ian and Alison from Waikanae and Ian and Nola from Hamilton whom we had already met at Omokoroa.
So it was a lovely little weekend, spent locally, before heading back to the Mount on the Monday morning to continue the bathroom painting and other chores.