Surrounding Area
It is said that in the world of property / real estate, there are three things that are crucial: location! location! location! There are few lifestyle properties more ideally located in an environment that has something for almost everyone.
Local area
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| Tauranga city downtown. © 2009, GwenGary Productions. All rights reserved. |
The estate is located less than 3km from the picturesque Te Puna beach, where small boats can be launched from the boat ramp to fish in the nearby estuaries, or to head out into the mouth of Tauranga harbour, which has excellent fishing and some SCUBA diving opportunities. Te Puna also has a local tennis club, bridge club, two community halls, along with active cricket and rugby clubs.
Approximately 4km south of the estate is the Wairoa river and the Waimarino Adventure park which features excellent kayaking facilities, a rock climbing wall, Hydro slides and glowworm tours.
Less than 5km to the south lies the outer city suburb of Bethlehem, which has a large supermarket with ample parking and a range of small specialist shops. These include a general goods store, butchers, garage / mechanics, discount goods store, hardware store, book store, Post Office, Winery, two garden centres and several licensed cafés and restaurants (one restaurant has a Michelin award).
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| Tauranga city downtown. © 2009, GwenGary Productions. All rights reserved. |
3kms further south lies the port city of Tauranga, which is currently the fastest growing city in New Zealand. As well as a wide variety of small specialist shops, the city boasts a number of shopping malls, including Bayfair Shopping Centre and Palm Beach Plaza. The city has an emerging bar / bistro scene located on the waterfront, which hosts an annual jazz festival. Tauranga features a range of restaurants offering a wide variety of cuisines, along with cinemas, two 10-pin bowling alleys and a lawn bowls club. There is also a large stadium complex in the Bayfair suburb, Baypark Stadium, which hosts Speedway events during summer and rugby matches in the winter.
For horseracing fans, Tauranga also has a race course, which is home to eleven race meetings per racing season including the popular Bay Of Plenty Harness Racing Clubs Anniversary weekend which meets in January.
Just a few short miles away is the popular holiday town of Mount Maunganui. The town is fortunate enough to have both a harbour beach (Pilot Bay) and an ocean beach with great surf within walking distance and is a popular place for visiting tourists and sun worshipers during the summer months. Mount Maunganui is only a 30-minute drive from the GwenGary orchard.
For golfing enthusiasts, there are 6 golf courses (5 large / 18-hole and 1 small / 9-hole) all within a 30-minute drive from the GwenGary orchard.
Further Out
Further afield, but still within an easy drive are:-
- Auckland, the City of Sails which is approximately 190kms (118 miles) from the estate. Auckland is the largest city in New Zealand and is home to more than 1.3 million residents (aproximately 31 percent of the country's population).
For sailing enthusiasts, Auckland has more small boats per capita than any other city in the world, with an estimated 135,000 yachts and launches. Around 61,000 of the country's 150,000 registered yachtsmen also come from the Auckland Region and two America's Cup challenges (2000 Cup and 2003 Cup) have been hosted there.
Auckland also boasts a full-time professional symphonic ensemble in the Auckland Philharmonic Orchestra and many national treasures and significant cultural artifacts reside there. Journey time to Auckland is approximately 2 hours, 20 minutes. - The city of Hamilton, which features impressive Italian Renaissance Gardens. Other local attractions include Hamilton Zoo, the Waikato Museum, the Hamilton Astronomical Society Observatory, the Arts Post art gallery, and the SkyCity casino. Journey time to Hamilton is approximately 1 hour, 45 minutes.
- The city of Rotorua, home to New Zealand's most active geothermal area, also features spectacular trout fishing, a number of adventure activities (including white water rafting, skydiving, bungy jumping and zorbing), extensive Maori culture/heritage facilities and has a reputation as a spa destination, that dates back more than 160 years. The city centre is only a one hour leisurely drive from the estate.
- Te Kuiti, home of the world-famous Waitomo Caves, believed to be over two million years old. As well as their spectacular stalactite and stalagmite formations, the caves also contain an impressive glow-worm grotto. Journey time to Waitomo is approximately 2 hours.
Both Auckland and Hamilton have international airports, while both Tauranga and Rotorua have regional airports.
