Tauranga will always have a piece of my heart

It wasn't until I arrived back in Tauranga did I realised that
I had long left a piece of my heart in Tauranga.
I still know how to drive to Bethlahem from Tauaranga city centre,
then cross that bridge, over the river where people would "walk on water",
turn left after the bridge, then right,
to go uphill on 80k on a countryroad.
I drove without a map or GPS back then,
and just knew the way by heart.
So I still remember that route still.

I caught up with my now former-coworker.
He had to move here despite most of his work can be done remotely.
Technically he could be a digital nomad and travel as he works,
but the job had required him to move here and be present in case of crisis might occur.
This is 12-month contract for him,
and he very much would like to move back to Wellington,
where there are more jobs and to him a better lifestyle.
His fiance was watching her cats on their bed back in Wellington,
she said to me she missed them a lot.

For me,
Tauranga has always been my favourite place on Te Ika Maui.
I'd move here if I had the opportunity and the right circumstances to do so.
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I do love Tauranga.
The climate, the ocean, the marshland, the mount,
Even just the fact that there is a town called Bethlahem,
and the close-knit family culture here that I have witnessed,
and all the kiwifruits and avocados.