I didn’t want to leave Tauranga. I’m not sure if it was the sun infiltrating my system like a drug, or the warmth on my skin, but as soon as I got out of my car, I was obsessed.

I’ll preface this all by saying I wish I’d written this weeks ago when it happened. Now, trying to recollect everything several weeks later, it’s all become more muddled and lost its sparkle. But these were truly some of my favorite days.

My time in Tauranga started as all great days off do – with a stop at a cafe. I’ve noticed that bagels aren’t huge here. There’s no wide variety of flavor options with even wilder cream cheese selections to complement your choice. So when I saw a place called Little Guy Bagel and Brew, I put it first on my agenda for the trip.

Sadly, I still wasn’t greeted by a pastry case with a plethora of options. It seemed that a seeded bagel was about the only one they carried, but it wasn’t just plain! And it was a great bagel.

I hadn’t prepared my choice ahead of time by looking at an online menu, which is unlike me. I found myself lost on what I actually wanted, and asked the barista her recommendation. She replied that the number 7 was one of her favorites. I saw the word “prosciutto” in the description and was sold, telling her I’d take that with an iced latte.

The number 7 was essentially an Italian hoagie – something I’ve never had myself – on a bagel. It was amazing. I’m never usually one for thickly stacked sandwiches, because I’m always sure I’ll hate something that’s on it. However, this one was amazing, even down to the red onions I would usually find myself picking off. It was a good start to the day, and my parents got to enjoy watching me eat it while on a quick FaceTime call.

Mt. Maunganui is an area directly next to Tauranga, and is the true beach town of the area. There is also a small mountain of the same name on the edge of the peninsula of the town, making for a beautiful bookend to an extraordinary stretch of beach along near-turquoise blue waters.

There were two hikes available to do on Mt. Maunganui. There was the base track, which would take you around the base of the mountain and offer ocean views the whole way. The other hike, and the one that I optioned for, was the summit hike. It was a fairly quick but steep trek to the top.

I started off my hike at about noon. The sun was high in the sky, and it was over 60 degrees outside, which felt like a shock to my system. At first, I’d debated if my decision to leave my coat in the car and opt for just a light jacket was a mistake. However, about 5 minutes in, I was already sweating and stripping off my lighter jacket, so I was grateful for the lack of extra clothing to carry.

Again, I’m not sure what it was about this area that was like a drug directly into my bloodstream, but I was just beginning my climb up the steps when I got that overwhelming feeling of joy at being alive. I think I even said “I love life” as I passed some sheep on the way to those stairs. It feels like some cheesy youth pastor thing to say now, but I was really just high on life in Tauranga.

The hike mainly consisted of steps built into the path all the way up, making for a quick ascension of the mountain. By the time I reached the top, I was a bit winded, but had lost very minimal time overall.

The views from the top offered up the whole town, and endless miles of turquoise ocean water. There is also a small island called Leisure Island that sat not even a mile down the beach, and added to the beautiful scenery. That island is essentially connected to the main beach by a thin strip of land, so I was able to walk onto it easily later that afternoon.

I wandered around the top, taking pictures of the stunning view and trying to figure out how to get one of myself in front of it. As I trekked around, I saw another girl perched on some rocks, and thought about offering to take her photo. Before I could speak up, she saw me and asked me to do just that.

She was around my age, maybe younger, and did the hike up herself. She was from the city and said she often liked to climb the mountain every now and again just to get those views from the top. She was dressed in a cute, sporty outfit and seemed like she was picture ready. While I’d put make up on for the day, I’d wished I’d had a cuter outfit to put on beneath my jacket as well.

The girl knew just how she wanted to look in her photos and had several poses in mind that she worked through as I consistently hit the shutter button on her phone’s camera. After she’d spun around several different ways on the rock and approved some photos, I asked her to do the same for me. I was grateful she’d already given me plenty of pose ideas to follow in her footsteps. As it’s rare for me to get good photos of myself on my solo exploring days, I was extremely happy with the outcome of my summit hike.

I talked to her a bit more, her asking where I was from and how long I was traveling for. I told her a bit about myself and how I was working on a dairy farm. That conversation really kicked off a theme for the day where every other girl I met and talked to, we got into my job and they were all very curious about the daily goings-on that I experience. It was fun getting to relive daily stories through new, non-farming people, and remind myself how I probably would’ve reacted before working on the farm as well. Now, it’s all weirdly normal to me.

After we said our goodbyes and I descended back down to the beach, I treated myself to an ice cream cone as it felt like such a summer day to me outside. I finished it quickly after seagulls kept flying suspiciously close to me, and I wasn’t eager to find out how much closer they were willing to get.

To round out my afternoon, I took a small walk onto and around Leisure Island. I’d read a small snippet online that said you could see blowholes on that island, but unfortunately I had found none. Then, I drove to Papamoa beach right next door to take it in for a short time. Lastly, I did a short waterfall hike to Kaiate Falls, which were some beautiful multilevel falls that were only a short hike from the parking lot.

As check-in for my hostel closed at 5, I got into Tauranga around 4 and got myself all checked in at the Wanderlust hostel. There was no one in my room when I went to check out the space, so I ran a quick errand to drop my camera film off to be developed before heading back. Then, I returned to unload my overnight bag from my car and bring it up to my room.

This time, there was one girl in my room, unpacking her things like she had just arrived. As I did a short walk around town, I had told myself that I would make it my goal to make a friend at the hostel to have dinner with. I had initially intended to get some takeaway fish and chips, but I’d seen so many good looking restaurants as I’d walked around that I really just wanted to be able to go out with someone and try some new food. I was grateful that someone was around and I could try my hand at making a friend, something I usually hope another person will initiate.

Upon talking to my new roommate, Wanda, we exchanged some basic questions about where we were from and what we were doing in Tauranga. She was from Japan, and was hoping to find some kind of job in Tauranga. When I told Wanda about my current dairy farm job, she got excited and said she was looking for a job on a dairy farm. I exchanged numbers with her and told her that I would ask my manager when I got back if we had any open positions at the farm, and I’d get back to her.

As it was about 5:30, I decided to ask Wanda if she had been planning to head out and get dinner. She seemed grateful that I had asked, and we headed out to the street next door together, which held most of the restaurants that had caught my eye. As we walked, Wanda told me that her mom had been visiting with her the past few weeks, and had just left her on her flight back to Japan that morning. She said she’d felt so lonely and was sad to see her leave, so I was glad to have tried my hand at extending friendship to what seemed like just the right person.

I’m generally not one to enjoy making decisions for other people, and I think she was a bit shy, so we struggled got a moment to decide on a place to eat. We narrowed it down to a type of cuisine – Thai – and found a place right next to our hostel serving Thai food. We grabbed a table easily and set open the menus to find our meals.

She was a girl who knew what she wanted, so we quickly got our food ordered and had our dinner underway. Wanda told me about her few years working under a similar visa in Australia, where she’d worked on various fruit picking farms and how she was looking for something similar here.

As dinner went on, we bonded over our love for cats, as well as how we both cry too easily at just about everything. We exchanged different stories about ex-boyfriends, family members, and what our plans were moving forward in our travels. Similarly, we both were a bit muddled on the details of what came next, me after my farm job, and her even just starting the next day.

Because of her interest in dairy farming, I sprinkled in some of the details of my day-to-day work life and fun little anecdotes of what have become my new normal. It’s fun seeing others’ reactions now as people who are unfamiliar with this kind of thing. Needless to say, after sharing about the moms who aren’t too happy to be milked and calf kidnappings, she didn’t seem too interested in farming anymore.

We wandered back to the hostel after dinner, after having sat at the dinner table for a few extra minutes debating how we were supposed to pay the tab for the meal. So far, it seems that most places have you go to the front desk and pay, which is good to know moving forward.

After putting our leftovers in the communal fridge and heading back to our room, I wasn’t entirely sure what the evening should look like next. I was new to being the leader, generally preferring to be led around by a new friend rather than being the one to initiate. It doesn’t come naturally to me, unfortunately. According to Wanda, though, I didn’t seem shy at all, so I was really faking it til I made it.

Our bedroom had an en-suite bathroom for all six of us girls to share, so we planned to just take our showers and head to bed. There were a bunch of people hanging around and talking in the common area upstairs, but neither of us seemed too inclined to join in the festivities.

Before either of us could actually jump in the shower – we’d gotten distracted talking about Wanda’s potential next career path on the South Island – we were joined by two of our other roommates who seemed to be traveling together. They didn’t really look at us to say hi, so I didn’t interrupt their conversation to greet them, and Wanda and I continued talking as the two new girls got themselves ready for bed.

I’m not entirely sure what finally got us talking to each other, but as one of the girls was changing into her PJs, her friend Anna joined in our conversation. Anna and her friend Kim were taking a road trip around the North Island together. Anna herself was from New Zealand, and her friend Kim was a traveler like Wanda and I. Anna and Kim worked together at a fancy hotel in Wellington in one of the restaurants, and Kim had just finished her last day there, which is what prompted their road trip.

The two girls were planning to get up early to watch the sunrise, which meant they were getting up around 6am for this time of year, and intended to go to bed early. We ended up talking for a while, but still all fell asleep around 10 or so, which was probably my best record yet in a hostel.

Working in hospitality, Anna and Kim had plenty of interesting stories to share, mainly surrounding their other coworkers. Hearing all of their chaotic stories weirdly made me miss my own time working in hospitality, though I’m sure I’ll be quick to take it all back once I start again.

Similarly to Wanda, they weren’t super impressed with my farm life stories. Anna said people had told her to try farming, since it was fairly easy to find an opportunity to try it when you’re in New Zealand. She was never interested, and said she’s even less so now. I don’t think she appreciated the stories of workers shoving their hands inside of cows to see if they’d calved or not.

Once we’d run out of stories and steam, we all found our way to our respective beds and settled in for the night. I think it was the best night of sleep I’d had at a hostel, but I still woke up at 5am. When Anna and Kim left to watch their sunrise, I followed closely behind, feeling bad that I couldn’t say goodbye to Wanda. Luckily, we’d followed each other on Instagram, so we messaged our goodbyes later on in the day.

Being up early, I didn’t have many options for activities. While I should’ve driven to the beach to watch the sunrise, which I saw beginning from the porch at the hostel, I opted for grabbing coffee at the only open shop and following it with a visit to a doughnut shop I’d wanted to try. Then, as it was still too early for anything to be open, I skipped around on my list of activities for the day and headed to a nearby quarry park that was filled with gardens and walking paths. I wasn’t the only one who ventured to start my day there, but the place was big enough that the only being I ran into was an off-leash dog before he doubled back to find his owner.

The rest of my day was filled with another cafe, some thrift shopping, a historic village, and another waterfall hike (and another cafe – I overdid it that day, I think). Overall, a peaceful conclusion to my weekend away. I was sad to drive back, and almost immediately regretted not staying in the area longer, as my earlier start got me back to my local town around 2pm. I plan to go back to ensure I don’t feel like I missed anything, and hope my experience there is just as amazing as the first one. And hopefully I’ll keep up my friendship-making moving forward!