Ems and Bex on Tour: Beachy Times in the sunshine

Ems and I took a break from the tourist sightseeing and chilled on the beach for a few days. It was bright sunshine for the whole time and very hot indeed. Perfect for a beachy few days.

Mt. Maunganui

We arrived at our hostel within two hours of leaving Matamata and were soon in our room and getting ready to head to the beach. ‘Pacific Coast Lodge and Backpackers’ is a friendly backpackers lodge with lovely staff and a really modern homely feel to it. Every day the rooms get hovered and cleaned and everything was there for the use of the people staying. We had one night of eating in the busy kitchen and there were loads of people milling about and playing cards, chatting and even singing!

As a general rule I do shy away from hostels and backpacker lodges, but this one was lovely. There are a range of different rooms that you can stay in: Dorms, en-suite dorms, private double, private twin etc. We chose a private twin with a bathroom shared by three other rooms, though we rarely saw any other people using it. Both of us were very impressed with the place and I would definitely recommend it to others 🙂

Mt Maunganui has two sections of beaches: Pilot Bay, where all of the boats are moored, is sandy but has more grassy areas, it is often calmer and lends itself to stand-up paddle boarding. The main beach is sandy and has a few little sections and a small island that you can walk over the beach to. We chose to head towards the main beach as it just looks perfect. Ems and I both took books and had a good read, then I had a lay down (and a sleep for me), we read magazines before walking around ‘Leisure Island’ and going to get some dinner at the Mac’s Bar on the main road.

Upon arrival back at the hotel we are both happy to find that we have caught the sun. Hopefully by the time we go back to normal life and work we’ll be bronzed goddesses.

Thornton Beach

After checking out of the backpacker lodge in Mt. Maunganui, we drove to Thornton Beach, making it in excellent time and getting there by 11.30 am. This meant that we were at the beach and sunbathing in record time 🙂

Thornton Beach Holiday Park is really lovely, right on the beach and the cabins are really modern and clean. We had a little walk around the site and on towards the beach where we sat and ate our sandwiches. Ooh get us; we’ve been making sandwiches for ourselves so that we can save a bit of money. It’s very pleasant eating them in lovely places along our little road trip; least of all sitting on a massive piece of driftwood on a long sand dune lined beach in the sunshine.