Tauranga City, New Zealand. If you’ve never been there then you are really missing out. I don’t say this about just any old place. If you’ve never sat on top of ‘The Mount’ watching the sun rise or had a cold beer on ‘The Strand’ then you should get in a plane, train or automobile and get there as soon as possible! You can find Tauranga on the East Coast of New Zealand’s North Island. It was once a small coastal community but now boasts the title of New Zealand’s fifth largest city only after Auckland, Wellington, Christchurch and Hamilton. Driving in from the north on top of the Kaimai mountain range you’ll get your first glimpse of Tauranga harbour and Mauao, Mt Maunganui’s famous dormant volcano which is popular with tourists and locals alike.
Tauranga is more of a sprawling city with shopping centres located in suburbs instead of concentrated in one area in the CBD. With a population of 120,000 traffic can get pretty busy (although still nothing compared to Auckland’s gridlocked nightmare), so make sure you allow plenty of time during peak hour. If you’re looking for fun activities then you’ve come to the right place. From Tauranga you can take a dolphin safari, swimming with these beautiful mammals. Go windsurfing, surfing, parasailing, hang gliding, micro lighting, skydiving and base jumping from the top of Mauao just to name a few adrenaline pumping activities.
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In the main cities like Auckland, Wellington and Christchurch the types of luxury accommodation on offer include 5-star luxury hotels, lodges, apartments and bed and breakfasts. Get out into the rest of New Zealand however, and the options may be more limited. Take Lake Taupo for instance. Taupo is a popular tourist destination in the centre of the North Island. There are a number of upmarket boutique accommodation options, but nothing that would really qualify as a 5-star hotel. So does this mean (a) you should avoid Taupo? (b) downgrade to a 4-star property or (c) consider an alternative?
In my view, visitors to New Zealand who do not experience a lodge or a 5-star b&b are missing out on something uniquely NZ: the ambience, wine & cuisine, vistas, personalized service and interesting conversations that can only be found in such accommodations, and which epitomize the NZ experience, attitude and lifestyle. So, in the example above, consider an alternative. A great website which lists around 100 such properties can be found at Heritage & Character Inns of NZ.
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Wherever you travel throughout the world you are bound to hear the terms Bed and Breakfast, B and B or B’n'B – so what can you expect? B and B’s are a more personalised & luxury accommodation option where your hosts will personally attend to you, (their guests) rather than with a hotel/motel where one of many staff members generally tend to guests on behalf of the hosts.
New Zealand’s Bed and Breakfasts are often situated within historic homesteads or luxury lodges and your accommodation will generally consist of a private bedroom, most likely to have it’s own deck or courtyard with views of hillsides, beaches or gardens (for example) and either a private/ensuite bathroom or in some cases shared facilities with other guests – commonly known as ‘guest share’ bathrooms.
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