Will Johnston: Get a little lost, discover hidden gems

Will Johnston

How well do you really know where you live? I've lived in the Bay for just over three years. I'm a baby when it comes to my time here, but it doesn't make me any less of a local than someone who's been here for 20 years.

I've lived in lots of different places in New Zealand and I'm proud to call Tauranga home. Though it does make me laugh how in every town, including this one, there's a group of people who have some sort of criteria you have to fill to be counted as a local!

If you live here you have the right to call yourself a local. That old-school thinking that says you have to have been here for a certain period of time, know everyone and everything round here and have a deep connection to your surroundings is just ridiculous.

My partner's parents are thinking of moving here, maybe, one day. They're great people and they'll be moving to a great place.

When they were here over the weekend we took them to some places they might like to live and also opened our eyes further to the awesome place we live.

Hello Te Puna! There are so many hidden beaches, inlets and places with a view there, it's kind of like the Secret Garden of Tauranga. Waitui Reserve, Google it! Nourish Cafe in Te Puna, just off the motorway, have free wide-brimmed hats to wear if you sit outside. They make you look hilarious, but the coffee is great, you can't Google that.

Omokoroa was on our list and didn't disappoint, when you're living in Auckland and looking at houses here, the land in Omokoroa is dirt cheap! The views of the water are all over Omokoroa like a rash. A watery, spectacular, extensive, ever-increasing-in-price rash.

We stopped on a corner in Whakamarama to buy feijoas and limes from the cutest two little boys and their dad. I love that that still happens here. How's the view back down the valley out to the Mount and out to sea from Whakamarama by the way?!

Nourish Cafe is one of the jewels in Te Puna's crown. Photo: FILE

Matua has sprawling houses and such a relaxed atmosphere. Fergusson Park and the kite surfers just off it are such an easy way to sit and waste some time. Then there's the Mount and Papamoa... though I'd hazard a guess you know them well!

I know life is busy, but at some point before it gets cold, you really should just get in the car and get a little lost down some roads you've never been down. Does it make us less local if we used a GPS?

- Will Johnston is host of The Hits 95FM Day Show. Live and local from 9am till 3pm, every weekday in the Bay of Plenty.