New Zealand (plus bits of Hangzhou, Gold Coast and Kuala Lumpur)!

It has certainly been ages, so it may take a few posts to fully explain my various adventures during the last few months, particularly over the winter break, from which I have just returned.
First of all, it is really nice to be back in Nanjing, and China in general, which is a feeling I thought I wouldn't really have, but I have definitely missed it. I guess going away for such a long time and primarily living out of a backpack make it feel like home. However, it is certainly still winter here, which is quite a contrast to the sunny summertime New Zealand is experiencing.

So, New Zealand! This trip included many firsts for me, as follows:
1. First time in the Southern Hemisphere
-first time in Oceania in general, Hangzhou, Australia, and Malaysia
2. First time renting a car
3. First time driving on the left side of the road
4. First time wwoofing
5. First time hitch-hiking (not as dangerous in NZ, I promise)
6. First time jumping out of a plane (from 16500 feet)

We started our trip with the long journey to New Zealand which began in Nanjing, obviously. The Center closed its doors on Saturday and kicked us last remaining students out, so four of us stayed in another student's apartment close to campus for a few nights before leaving for our respective break destinations. Very early on Monday morning, we left the apartment for the Nanjing train station to take a 7 hour train to Hangzhou and from there fly to Kuala Lumpur. We had a few hours in Hangzhou to walk around the famous West Lake and eat our last Chinese breakfast for a while. mmmm. 豆浆。 We then flew to Kuala Lumpur, where we discovered that Australia would not let us in without a visa. hmmm. Even though we planned to not leave the airport for our layover, Australia requires people who are staying for more than 8 hours to buy a visa. So with only an hour or so between flights we somehow made it through customs and managed to buy internet time (with the Malaysian ringgit Stan luckily had) and purchase an electronic visa.
lesson learned: do not have such a long layover in Australia; or pay close attention to visa requirements

Perhaps it was lucky we were forced to buy a visa, because the Gold Coast airport it very small and could probably not provide adequate entertainment for an 8 hour layover. So we went to the beach. Gold Coast is the Florida of America, with surfing galore and beautiful beaches and lots of sun. So much sun that my poor, unweathered skin got a nice sunburn.
After gold Coast we flew to Auckland, on the North Island of New Zealand. Although Auckland is the largest city in New Zealand (500,000 of NZ's 4 million), Wellington, on the south tip of the North island is the capital. Auckland was fine, not really beautiful, as some of the other cities in NZ are, but the weather was beautiful. We went to Rangitoto Island, which is a (thought to be) extinct volcano on an island near the city, where one can hike around and admire the volcanic rock and lava caves. At the top, there was some sort of school group listening to a ranger talk describing eradication measures taken against invasive species. He was describing their efforts to get rid of rats (I think) or perhaps some other kind of small mammal, saying the the DOC (department of conservation, which runs all the national parks, etc.) dumped 12 tons of some type of poison on the island to get rid of these animals. Perhaps this is excessive? Was there damage to other native plants or animals?

Presence of non-native species seems to be a very important topic in New Zealand (as well as in Australia). Just going through customs and immigration in the Auckland airport, there are signs all over the place reminding you that bringing any foreign species into the country could result in the death of their fragile environment, and there are large garbage cans for you to dump these offending items. I guess being a small island in the middle of nowhere makes one more susceptible to these types of threats.

Stan's cousin, Ben (who is also my neighbor!), is studying abroad in Auckland, so we waited for his classes to finish on Friday and then rented a car and started heading south.
Our first stop was in Rotorua, which is a center of geothermal activity, and a bit like a tiny Yellowstone. The whole town lives with the constant smell of sulphur from the geysers and hot mud pools. We then went on to Taupo, a bit further south. There was a lovely lake there, which we walked around, but unfortunately it was raining for most our our time there- so not so lovely. We went looking for some "hot streams" as they were advertised, but because of the excessive rain, they were only lukewarm, so we ran back to the car and went for a walk somewhere else. At the somewhere else, we looked as some water falls and continued down the river and came across some kiwis (New Zealanders, not the bird or the fruit) jumping into the river from great heights. They seemed pretty fearless and were jumping out of trees into the river, maybe 30 or so feet up. New Zealand is all about the extreme sports, and seems rather lawless in that way.

After Taupo, Ben went back to Auckland and we continued south to Wellington, where the skies were blue and the sun came out after days of rain up north.