Scenes from "home"...

Our apartment is on the southeast corner of the building, and the outer walls have many windows, affording sights that have quickly come to be images of “home” for us here.

The east windows overlook Victoria Road and another apartment building – not too exciting. To the south east, you see one of the main roundabouts in the Mount, always good for some excitement. It includes two zebra crossings which adds additional drama. Maunganui Road is the main street through town, and the majority of cafes and boutiques sit two blocks from our roundabout. It is a busy area, but the roundabout moves fairly efficiently.

Just beyond the roundabout is Sunny's Variety Shop. As you might imagine someplace named Sunny's would be, it is painted a brilliant yellow. If you've spend much time in Paul's Discount in Iowa City, you'd be reminded of home. Upon entering, you'd notice how vast and incomprehensible their selection of goods is. There are somewhat out-dated posters, fish bait and tackle boxes, an array of personal grooming items, Asian food, lawn fertilizer... The list goes on (and on).

Opposite from Sunny's is, sadly, a Burger King. We've not visited it yet and sincerly hope not to - it's not the cheeriest reminder of the US.

To the south of our apartment, along Salisbury Road, are a number of sights. Coronation Park is a green space in a city block that abuts the Mount Maunganui Bowling Club grounds (complete with bowling club flag). The park is a small but quaint (there’s really no other appropriate word; maybe “twee”) with a man-made waterfall, small curving walkways, and grassy areas. Some weekends a few artists (though perhaps that is too strong a label) set out their paintings on the corner by the roundabout. I’m not sure they are ringing up too many sales, but it seems to make for good socializing.

The Bowling Club offers hours of visual delight. Lawn bowling appears to be somewhat like bocce, but on a level, well-kept grass playing surface. They roll balls that have been weighted so as to be off-balance towards a target ball. See Wikipedia for more details if you so desire; I’ve read about it, but I think I’ll need to play sometime to get the hang of it. While it is open to the general public, the club members are my favorite. On competition day, they wear all-white, with opponents wearing a color (perhaps in a vest or hat) that represents their home club. It appears to be mostly older men, but my vision isn’t that great, so don’t quote me.

Just down from the Bowling Club, in case things get a bit rowdy, is the New Zealand Police. Because NZ is so small, they don’t have regional or local police, simply a national policing unit. I went to get fingerprints taken for my teaching license (I had to send them off to the FBI); they seemed a very friendly group. Occasionally, you’ll hear the sirens and see them speeding towards the traffic round – that is always fun to watch them navigate that, especially in traffic!

Following along the road, and viewed to the southwest of our apartment, is the Port of Tauranga and the Salisbury Wharf. The Port stretches south along the peninsula until it reaches Tauranga. Huge ships, stacked high with giant containers, sail out of the port. The majority of their exports go to Asia and include forest products and agricultural products. (For more fascinating facts, you can check out the Port’s website.)

The wharf is where the ferry between Tauranga and the Mount operates in the summer. It is also a popular place from which to fish, though after long observation, there didn’t appear to be much action. Then again, I’m not much of a fisher, and I’m not known for my patience, so maybe I just didn’t wait long enough.

If you face your chair on the balcony in that direction, you can glimpse Pilot's Bay. I imagine it is as close as we'll ever get to living on the ocean, so we'll call that "glimpse" our "view"!