I catched the first view of Auckland in the sunny morning light from the plane window and immediately understood what was meant by the city being build on volcanic crates. They were numerous, everywhere and in different states of faunic conquest. It was so green and beautiful after weeks of constant dust in Nepal (due to the lack of a proper camera I can not provide any pictures of that).

The first leg of my visit was exclusively comprised of re-organization. I needed to find out where and how to travel, I needed a camera (desperately), and I needed to settle into the fact that I was traveling alone from now.

Auckland turned out to be a good place for all these things. The hostel was packed with people, all having good advices (even though most were traveling by car). The shops were on their big Christmas sale, so I got some really good deals for a tent (by now I know all the outdoor shops in Auckland) and a camera. It turned out that one girl in the hostel was a hairdresser, so I got my hair comfortably cut one evening and quite cheap before I headed on south.

Actually the second time in Auckland was only a 24 h stay. So there was not much more sight seeing here, but just a nice dinner and some re-packing of backpacks.