Tiffany and Greg - Around the World!

Anyone for some grog?

2012-01-17T05:16:00.001-08:00

December was a fascinating month on the blog,

We'd already seen the modern face of cannibalism back in the Cook Islands and right before leaving Tonga we found the descendants of the pirates of yore. There were less cutlasses than Greg would have preferred... in "Pirates!" http://coastguardcouple.com/2011/12/05/pirates/

The economics of the South Pacific and the effect on the islands is something we inadvertently ran smack into while wandering Tonga. As Tonga is the only Polynesian nation to retain its sovereignty, it makes for some difficult choices for their people: Does Tonga remain poor and free or do the people risk loosing their culture, their self rule or possibly their religion in order to gain the benefit of aid?

It's a tough call and we spent a few entries really looking at the many advantages and disadvantages offered by the many powers at play on these tiny islands in "The Upside to Colonization". http://coastguardcouple.com/2011/12/12/the-upside-to-colonization/

Finally December brought the blog to New Zealand. A small island country (ok, well, huge compared to the other islands out here) that in all honestly we had every intention of just skipping over and ignoring completely on our journey. Fate and happenstance brought us out of our way to this far-flung piece of Her Majesty the Queen's empire and we're sure glad it did.

Because New Zealand is without a doubt the most awesome country we have visited in our lives. http://coastguardcouple.com/2011/12/19/kia-ora/

And seriously? At this point it fair to say we've been to some pretty interesting places so we know what we're talking about. New Zealand. Go there.

Greg: Just so you all know, that link up there is worth clicking just see what happens when a Florida girl get's her first taste of winter in about 2 years...

Oh and big announcement! We opened up a whole new section of the blog: the "Grog Files!"

Basically we're sampling all the wine, beer, famous cocktails and other drinks we can in each country we visit and we're putting up reviews, videos and how to contact the local companies so you can get your own! So far we've got Mexico and Tahiti up so if you ever wanted to know how to get a good cheap bottle of Mexican chocolate tequila (yep, you heard that right) or how to contact the ONLY winery in French Polynesia, you can now find that on our blog! http://coastguardcouple.com/grog-files/

Enjoy 2012 people and since we're about a day ahead of all of you we'll let you know if the world starts ending or something. ;-)

~Greg & Tiffany

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Quiz Night in Auckland

2012-01-09T01:17:00.000-08:00

Everything is Closed for Christmas!

2011-12-23T00:12:00.000-08:00

hand-made crust cookie crust

2011-12-23T00:11:00.000-08:00

Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer on Ukulele!

2011-12-23T00:10:00.000-08:00

White Christmas played on the Ukulele

2011-12-23T00:06:00.000-08:00

Yuletime Ukulele

2011-12-22T23:57:00.001-08:00

It's Christmas and we'll keep the tradition alive... Here is your annual dose of Southern Hemisphere Yuletide cheer to warm your hearth with - complete with Ukulele Christmas Carols on the beach!

http://coastguardcouple.com/2011/12/22/a-kiwi-christmas/

Fresh on the tails of our promotion to time-traveling golden dragons (yes, we just like writing that) the blog spends last month exploring the only independent Polynesian nation left on this planet: The Kingdom of Tonga.

Tonga has many fascinating aspects, listed here in order of importance:

1) BACON!

http://coastguardcouple.com/2011/11/03/tonga-has-bacon/

(Have you gone a year without real bacon? Until you do, do not mock our prioritization of this ;-)

2) Did you notice the cross on the flag? Just in time for the birth of baby Jesus we find ourselves receiving an education in the concept of a "Christian Nation" and how very little we understand about those words.

http://coastguardcouple.com/2011/11/07/tongas-3rd-gender/

3) Oh yeah, and they let you swim with wild baby humpback whales!

Oh yes, there is video of this little guy!

http://coastguardcouple.com/2011/11/21/swimming-with-baby-whales/

Being as this serves as our Christmas card you may feel that we should include a yearly summary of some kind. But, you see, we have a blog for that...

As always we love to hear from you and look forward to finding out how the year has treated you.

Best wishes from our tropical Christmas!

-Greg & Tiffany

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hand-made crust cookie crust

2011-12-20T00:51:00.000-08:00

Everything is Closed for Christmas!

2011-12-20T00:47:00.000-08:00

White Christmas played on the Ukulele

2011-12-20T00:45:00.000-08:00

Kiwi climate - what it's like in New Zealand

2011-12-11T23:41:00.000-08:00

Tongan Warrior Training

2011-12-05T05:08:00.000-08:00

The perils of land

2011-12-05T04:55:00.000-08:00

Tongan ladies dance

2011-12-05T04:51:00.000-08:00

Hydromancy - Tiffany as Sorcerer's Apprentice

2011-12-05T03:55:00.000-08:00

Sad baby goat

2011-12-05T03:52:00.000-08:00

Crazy toasters!

2011-12-05T03:50:00.000-08:00

Tonga's Stonehenge - Ha'amonga_'a_Maui

2011-12-05T03:44:00.000-08:00

Leaving Vava'u Tonga

2011-12-01T17:18:00.000-08:00

Tongan Jellyfish

2011-12-01T17:15:00.000-08:00

Caves of Vava'u

2011-12-01T17:13:00.000-08:00

The food of Tonga

2011-11-24T03:49:00.000-08:00

Coast Guard Couple-ing

2011-11-22T04:52:00.001-08:00

It's odd to think of ourselves as "veterans" but we are and in remembrance of Veterans day, we decided to answer a question from a woman considering joining up:

"My fiancé and I are contemplating joining the Coast Guard together after we get married..."

Check out our answer (and an awesome picture of Greg back in his days as a boarding officer) by clicking on "Coast Guard Couple-ing"

In October the blog explores just why Niue is Greg's most favorite island in all the South Pacific. The 125 feet of visibility on dives, the highly poisonous sea snakes that act like friendly puppies and, oh yeah, the part where you can literally swim through the island!

"Then we swam UNDER the island"

And that was just the water, the land here is also defies the imagination. From rainforest to some kind of oak forest to craggy shores to sandy beaches Niue really has it all...but we're just not exactly sure how all of it got here...

"How did it all GET here"

Finally, Tiffany and I have officially become time traveling Golden Dragons!

"No Flux Capacitor required"

It's a sailor thing. ;-)

Just occurred to us you all are probably gearing up for Thanksgiving back at home. The seasons have turned and it's just getting warmer here! (not that it actually got that cold to begin with... ;-)

-Greg & Tiffany

--
Follow us as we sail the world!
www.CoastGuardCouple.com

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Catvertising

2011-11-22T02:57:00.000-08:00

Baby Humphback Whale Breaching in Tonga

2011-11-21T04:36:00.000-08:00