Mount Maunganui (NZ) with kids

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Mount Maunganui is a beautiful town on NZ‘s North Island. It’s a peninsula, so it’s surrounded by beaches, and everything is within walking distance from anywhere. If you imagine paradise with beaches, this might be it: beautiful beaches, Mauao (the mountain), little islands around, and all the amenities you might want close by. Continue to see all about Mount Maunganui (NZ) with kids!

Family friendly place to stay in Mount Maunganui

We spent 10 days there in May 2016, in this house. It was nearly perfect, except for the fact that we had to move things in the fridge and in the pantry to fit our stuff. It wasn’t exactly a bad thing, but I felt like I was doing something wrong, invading someone’s personal space or something like that.

The sunset from the main beach – life by the beach is always better

And then, when we were leaving, I didn’t know how to put things back, so I had to leave everything like we arranged. The owner was really nice and thanked us for tidying up the house before leaving. I’m sorry we couldn’t put everything back in place still.

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Back to the point, the house is in an amazing location, we were able to go anywhere on foot – it was 20 minutes walking to the playground, less than 10 minutes to the supermarket or the center, around 10 minutes to the beach and around 25 minutes to Mauao, the mount. Loved it. The house – and the whole city were really warm compared to other places in NZ at the same time. Where we needed the heater on everywhere else, we only turned it on twice there.

We didn’t eat out because we were saving our money to use in Wellington with our friends, so I can’t tell you about food this time.

One little advice about The Mount accommodation…

Mount Maunganui is one of the most popular destination for kiwis. If you plan on visiting during summer (from November to February) or one of the many holidays in the country, you may want to book early on.

It’s worth it, I promise!

Look at this sunset. It was dreamy and it was warm and there was almost no wind – very, very rare in NZ. And so empty… we were nearly alone at the beach!

What to do in Mount Maunganui with kids

Walk a lot! We walked a lot. It’s a lovely place to walk around and, since it’s a small town, it’s super easy to go from one place to the other.

Go to the beach! We went to the beach and took beautiful photos. It was a little bit too cold for swimming in May, but the beaches there are beautiful and just by walking around the beach, it makes us feel better.

Sunset there is just a gorgeous thing. Must see. Try watching it from the top of Mauao and from the beach. Watch it from your window, from the car, from wherever. Just watch it, seriously.

Climbing Mauao. There really isn’t anything more New Zealand than this landscape.

We walked up to the summit of Mauao, the ‘big’ mountain there. It’s said to take around 40 minutes and it took us a bit over one hour, with lots of stops to do some geocaching, sightseeing, resting and all the rest.

It’s not a difficult walk, it’s just uphill, so it’s tiring. Coral (4) walked all the way up and down and still had energy left to play at the summit and at the base.

The way down was easier, I guess because it’s downhill (of course) and we took a path with stairs.
You will find there are quite a few paths, and you can choose whichever you like either to go up or down. I did NOT notice which ones we took, sorry! We took the first one from the car park up and the one that was on the opposite way down – between the huge rock (trust me, you’ll know) and the lookout.

From the top of Mauao, the harbor. To be really honest, Mount Maunganui is beautiful from every single corner and the view from up there, albeit stunning, wasn’t prettier than many others in town.

Go to the closest island! We also walked around Moturiki Island, and it was just lovely! There’s a path from the beach, so no boats needed. Short walk (around 30 minutes both ways) in such a beautiful place it was hard to leave. I loved it. Every minute of it.

We spent a few hours there and no one complained. Near the beginning of the track, there’s a diversion from the track where you go down a few stairs and end up on some rocks in the sea. So beautiful!

We also had to drive to the mall (Bayfair) to get the glasses we ordered. It’s a small mall, but it’s got everything. It was a short drive from the house, though. It’s the same as every other mall.

There is, if the weather isn’t nice, a small cinema. We didn’t try it, though, so no reviews. But we love a movie theater…

To finish it…

Our only regret is that we were there after summer. It was pretty hard not to jump on the water.

The Mount, as it’s called, is a beautiful place. If you’re ever wondering where to go next, and you love the beach, I would suggest you head there.

It’s also a great place to stay if you want to visit Hobbiton. It’s an hour away and way better than Matamata in my opinion.

Joao resting on the rocks at Moturiki Island

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