From New Plymouth we drive a couple of hours inland and we arrive in a tiny village called national park. From here we will discover the Tongariro national park, famous for one of the most popular day hikes of the world, the Tongariro crossing. This town looked a bit abandoned and there was not much to do. The hostel was pretty nice and there was a mini golf court at the other side of the road where I played two times in four days. Besides the day activities I enjoyed the good weather and read a bit.

From the fifth of January it was time for my solo journey. I said goodbye to Auckland and my family and took the bus to New Plymouth. The drive took around 7 hours and I arrived in New Plymouth around 4 P.M. I checked in at the hostel and went out for a walk and had dinner. Not much later it was bedtime because the next morning I had to wake up pretty early to take a cab to Mount Egmont national park, which is also known as mount Taranaki.

After a relaxing four hour flight from the paradise of Fiji, I finally reached the main destination of my journey. My aunt and uncle were waiting for me at the terminal and it was good to see them after eight years. They live in Auckland and they took me to their cozy place where I stayed for about two weeks.

Before my big trip to New Zealand I had a 24 hour long layover in Singapore, so this time a bit less reading. I arrived at the airport quite early in the morning, but because of the heavy monsoon it was not the best idea to do some sightseeing. Luckily the rain stopped not much later and it was time to go! I heard about a water and lightshow close to the big and famous Marina Bay Sands hotel. It was pretty spectacular. After a night full of walking it was time for a drink and eventually it was bedtime.

A couple months ago I decided to plan a trip to New Zealand. I was not interested in flying to New Zealand in one time so Fiji was a perfect stop. On the 8th of December I arrived in Singapore where I stayed for one night. The next day I flew to Fiji.

Till august, I only did some day hikes and it was time for something new. Together with a friend I decided to search for a multi-day hike. After some searching we ended up booking the Lasörling höhenweg. We booked via Bookatrekking, but next time we will do it ourselves. It is nice that the organization arranges everything, but it costs a bit more.