Tauranga

Scream spent eleven days in Tauranga.  While in Tauranga we enjoyed ourselves.  We visited Mount Manganui and watched SuperRugby in person. We also sailed on land in blokarts, which was fantastic.

We stayed at the Tauranga Bridge Marina.  The marina staff are great and their rates are very competitive.  There is a nice cafe and restaurant. Unfortunately there is a couple knots of current running through the marina at most times.  And the marina is quite isolated.  The walk to the nearest bus stop is more than a ten minutes, so we mostly walked the twenty minutes into the business district.

The marine industry in Tauranga is strong.  We received professional and inexpensive assistance from Battery Warehouse and Logicool refrigeration.

Tauranga is a small city with a very active port.  There are berths for a about a dozen ships and there was constant traffic.

On our way out of Tauranga, we passed within a few miles of the wreck of the M/V Rena.  The salvage operation continues, though I am skeptical given that almost half a year has gone by and much clearly remains to be done.  It seems obvious to me that there is no intent to move the wreck.  The wreck is in two pieces, both at least 10 meters above water and clearly visible at great distance.  On the positive side, the water is clear and the pod of dolphins we spotted nearby indicate that whatever pollution resulted from the wreck has dissipated.