We docked in Maunganui, which is a beachy part of Tauranga. Tauranga/Bay of Plenty is a very welcoming area. "Ambassadors" came onto the ship to answer questions and hand out maps and they were also stationed on the dock with a mobile visitors' center where it was possible to get information and book tours. We got a nice map showing a historic heritage trail in the center of Tauranga, and hiking trails in the Maunganui area.
Tauranga is the port cruise ships use as a jumping off point for Rotorua. It's about an hour and a half to Rotorua from here, and many of the passengers took ship tours to Rotorua and had an enjoyable day there. I found a website for Tauranga with maps showing 11 different walk ways and cycle ways, including the center of town, an estuary, and some non-urban trails. We decided we would stay in Maungania rather than spend half the day on a bus going to Rotorua.
The most distinctive feature of the Tauranga skyline is Mount Maunganui, also known as Mauao. 
Mauao is sacred to, and owned by, the Maori. It's 232m high. Mauao means "caught by the dawn." The Maori couldn't have known this, but Mauao happens to be very close to the International Date Line and is one of the first places in the world to see the dawn each day.
There are various trails for hiking at Mount Maunganui. Neither dogs nor bicycles are allowed. We chose the Oruahine Track. (Auto-correct changed it to "roughing." Sometimes auto-correct is smarter than you think.) The trail climbed about 3/4 of the way up. We passed fields where sheep grazed and wooded areas. 
The beaches we could see from the mountain stretched on for miles. According to TripAdvisor Maunganui Beach is New Zealand's best beach, and the 4th best in the South Pacific. That's saying something.
We met many other hikers on the trail and some runners as well, including a woman running barefoot. Along the way we had some terrific views. 
Eventually we came to a fork in the trail which gave the hiker an option to take a steeper, more difficult trail to the summit, or go back down. We picked one of the forks at random and found ourselves on the trail heading down.
At the end we came to a beach on the other side of the neck leading out to Maunganui. There was some kind of competition going on there that had to do with "surf lifeguards."
We walked into the Maunganui commercial area where there were several nice cafes and shops. We had a delicious lunch at a place called Eighty Eight Cafe.
After lunch we decided to go back to Mauao to walk around the Base Track. This is a 3.4 km track described as "flat" because it goes around the base of the mountain. It offers lovely views of the water, quite different from the views available on the Oruahine route.
Fitbit says:
17,500 steps
54 flights of stairs
After our mountain experience I staggered back to the ship, cursing at the people occupying every bench along the way. Oh, for an empty bench. I needed it more than those people.
Right before we sailed we were able to see a folkloric show on the ship - Te Ao Turoa. It was quite good. We saw some of the things we had seen in Rotorua, but there were some differences. The show included dancing, singing, weaponry and poi balls. I really liked the poi balls. If they have a class on poi balls during this cruise, I will try to go.
After dinner we went to hear a vocalist - Monique Dehaney. She is originally from Jamaica. She went to Japan to teach international affairs at a university. She had not intended to be a singer and just fell into when she sang at a Japanese birthday party and was "discovered." I loved her rendition of "Day-O." Everyone in the audience loved her.
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