Mount Maunganui Hike in Bay of Plenty, New Zealand
Mount Maunganui is a holiday paradise found on the North Island of New Zealand. Located in Tauranga at Bay of Plenty, this area is a popular vacation spot that features long, white sand beaches and boho boutiques. If you’re looking for a good activity on the coast, Mount Maunganui has an amazing hike that we highly recommend – see more below!
Mount Maunganui is located right next to Mount Maunganui beach. From the beach you’ll see a mountain that people are walking up/down from – this is the start of the hike!
There are multiple tracks up the hike that vary in difficulty. We only had one option as the other paths were closed for construction.
There are a ton of steps in the beginning! Don’t worry, it’s not like this the whole way.
The views the entire way up are incredible!
There will be a dirt gravel road eventually – the hike gets a bit steep around here, but you’re not too far from the top!
The picture above isn’t the summit, but we found this area to be more grand than the actual top. This was a little side area about 10 minutes before the end. I’m going to be honest, I was a little sketched out up here!
This is the view from the summit of Mount Maunganui. Such gorgeous views of New Zealand!
Once you go down, make sure you go down the correct way! We ended up going a different direction and had to back track. (But we did find these cute sheep that frequent the area, so that was a plus!)
We loved the hike up Mount Maunganui! It was a good workout and took about an hour to get to the top (not including pictures), but it wasn’t extremely difficult. The views were extraordinary throughout the hike – we highly recommend it!
How to get to Tauranga:
Tauranga is located about 3 hours from Auckland. It is only about 1 hour from Matamata where Hobbiton is located, and about 1 hour from Rotorua.
Mount Maunganui Accommodation:
My friends and I were in a group of 4 and stayed in an adorable home called The Beekeeper’s Cottage. It’s very affordable for a group of 4, and you even get $40 off your first time on Airbnb if you use my link! It is located 20 min from Tauranga and about 1 hour from Rotorua.