NZ North Island Grog Files

New Zealand – North Island

Soft Drinks

L & P

Type: Soft Drink

Rating: 3 sheets to the wind

Website: http://www.cokecareers.co.nz/products
(yeah, Coke bought ‘em.  That’s globozation for ya.)

Notes: It would be wrong to have a page about the drinks of New Zealand and not mention Lemon & Paeroa.  It’s the New Zealand soft drink and we’re really not sure why it hasn’t become a world-wide sensation!  Like you’ll see in other places on this page, New Zealand does not save their best efforts for “the good stuff” because even their widely distributed common drinks are just excellent.  Continue reading “NZ North Island Grog Files”

Lest We Forget – An American Perspective

Auckland, New Zealand

Jumping ahead a few entries here.  Don’t worry we’ll get back to the Great Kiwi Roadtrip soon enough but something else takes precedence.  April 25th was ANZAC day.  “What is that?” You might ask.

…And that right there is the problem.It isn’t your fault that you don’t know.  For us, we’d heard the word “ANZAC” before but didn’t really understand what it was (Australia / New Zealand Army Corps).  Then we got to New Zealand and during our many journeys here we discovered something – New Zealanders really love their soldiers.

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Lazy Birds

Dunedin, NZ

The Kiwi Roadtrip continues!

As long as you don’t mind the pressing need to bundle up in order to explore a land listed as “one of the closest to Antarctica” it’s sometimes hard to decide which is more magnificent, the countryside around Dunedin or the immaculate buildings in the city itself:

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Seasickness – when all else fails

This is the third in a 3 part series on how to prevent and overcome seasickness by Greg.  Take a look at the first two articles.

Mindset is critical.  After all, seasickness is all in your head.  No, seriously, it is (and yes, that means it’s all in my head too).

The short explanation for the reason people get seasick is that their mind is attempting to compensate their sense of balance with what they see and feel.  (Long explanation here.)  On a boat, what people see and feel for motion don’t always line up like they do on land.  The mind gets confused in a new environment with odd motions and then wham, down you go.

So can someone literally think them self sick?  Yes.  Yes they can.  That’s another reason for all the preventative methods.  Dumbo has his feather and I have my eucalyptus oil.  Placebo or not, who cares?  It works and I even smell better than Dumbo.  The good news is that you can also use the same mental effect to feel better.  Though there is no cure for seasickness, I have witnessed time and again people feeling significantly better when forced to steer the boat by hand.

Side benefit - You also get to look rather dashing.

Yes people, the ship’s auto pilot is the enemy here – turn it off.  There are a few possible explanations for why this works:

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Where the Scots ended up

Dunedin, NZ

Often when writing a blog entry we look back on the last few articles in order to remind ourselves where we left off.  This time we reviewed the road trip video and, well, frankly… Wow, that was a terrible resolution.  Not to mention a terribly long video.  Since we are writing these trip entries for ourselves as much as you all and since there is no way we’re going to leave that on the site we redid the road trip.  Each entry from then until now just got a new and different 1 minute clip of our adventures driving down the coast.  Because road trips are all about the little things like cows stopping traffic and “ocean golf.”  So if you wanted to see all the little things like Tiffany dancing in a kiwi hat and Greg’s adventures with roundabouts, that’s where they are.

The Kiwi road trip continues!

Continue reading “Where the Scots ended up”

Seasickness – Prevention is the only cure

This is the second in a 3 part series on how to prevent and overcome seasickness by Greg.  The first article can be found here.

The only cure for seasickness is an overwhelming amount of prevention.

1)      Sooner or later, just about everyone deals with seasickness

2)      You either take action to prevent it or suffer the consequences

I have managed to only get seasick a few times in my life (which was more than enough) and I have successfully sailed though 40 knots of wind and 18 foot seas with the rest of the crew down for the count.  Except for Tiffany of course, Tiffany was happy as a clam down in the galley cooking.  Unlike Tiffany, the secret to my success is not near-godlike fortitude – it’s planning ahead.

 

Yes, it takes planning to look this good.

Being proactive is crucial because once you get sick, there is little you can do except suffer though it, and working while sick sucks.  Strike that.  Horrible.  It’s horrible enough that over the past decade I’ve spent no small amount of my time testing every home remedy I could find over until I found the stuff that actually works.

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Penguins and Wine

Marlborough, NZ

The Great Kiwi Roadtrip continues!!

Stepping off the Interislander Ferry had us stepping into one of the major wine regions of New Zealand: Marlborough.  Where sheep, kittens, vineyards and Kiwis all seem to have figured out a way to coexist:

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Easter & Bacon

For the past few years we’ve put up Ukulele Christmas carols in an attempt to spread tropical yuletide cheer and hey, to draw attention to an important Christian holiday in a unique way.   As Christians, publicizing Christmas is easy:  There’s already a celebration framework and symbols everyone gets.  Easter not so much.  Really?  Bunnies?  Please.

Unfortunately, being as Easter, not Christmas, is actually the seminal celebration of Christianity and all…well it makes it difficult.

What we need to do is bring out the Bacon.  Seriously, we need to Bacon-ize Easter.  Bacon is, aside from being awesome, a commonly recognized and highly loved symbol of differentiation between Christianity and other major monotheistic belief systems.  Without detracting from others, it highlights something unique about us.  Just like the beliefs we hold specifically surrounding the events of Easter (That whole rising from the dead, Son of God bit.  Kinda where we get our name).

Also, it’s bacon!  Would a sanctioned religious reason to chow down on some crispy goodness that be all that bad?  The bunny already brings eggs, come on, is it asking that much more?

Bacon Peep – Thanks to luckwithacapitalf

and maybe this way the international community will finally figure out the proper way to freaking cook a pig!

Though, speaking of the bunny, we’ve already put up a mythical creature that drops off free chocolate and Easter hasn’t gotten the traction it should in the public eye…but then we are talking about a faith who’s founding cause wasn’t exactly adored by the establishment either.

Publicity aside, conversion numbers aside, in the end what matters is that we who believe know what this day means.  We can have all the publicity in the world but without understanding our faith would be miles wide and only inches deep and sacrificing understanding at the altar of ‘butts in seats’ is a very real danger our churches confront every day.  Christ died and rose again so we can have eternal life.  That’s what Christianity is all about about, it’s also what today is all about.  No matter how you celebrate it, have a happy Easter people!  For us Jesus types, this is the day that makes us who we are!

About the authors

Greg and Tiffany are traveling around the world on sailing yachts and keep a video blog of their (mis)adventures.  If sailing to Tahiti on a 44 ft sailboat, 3-day delays for wine tastings, getting pooped on by seagulls, opening coconuts with dull machetes, sailing past tornadoes and ukulele Christmas carols are for you, then check them out at www.CoastGuardCouple.com!

 

Sailing and Seasickness

The main questions we get all revolve around the same issue:

 

“I am very comfortable on the water. However, I have been seasick twice in my life (both time on rough seas in motorized fishing boats), and I was wondering your opinion of how that might affect me while on longer sailing trips? Does your body adapt? I’m sure it’s pretty different person to person, but I was just wondering if you have some general advice.”

 OR

 I’d love to do this. It’s just a matter of convincing my wife. Unfortunately, she suffers somewhat from the violent seasickness. Any chance she could outgrow it if she sat a boat long enough?”

 

Seasickness, (and its prevention) easily the number one concern we get from those looking to get into volunteer crewing.  As such, we’re doing a 3 part series on the issue.

Tiffany chipped this one over to Greg simply because she has a superhuman cast-iron stomach and has never suffered from seasickness in her entire wild life of deep sea ocean racing, Coast Guard storm rescues and sailing instructing.  Tiffany is part mermaid and bleeds salt water.  Greg, on the other hand, is a mere mortal who dearly loves his aquatic-born bride.  As such, where she goes so must he.  Being mortal he is not immune to the ravages of Neptune’s fury and has learned to actually deal with it.

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New Zealand Interstate

Enroute Dunedin, NZ

The Great Kiwi Roadtrip continues!!


We make it a habit of reporting things to the highway patrol.  This mostly started when Tiffany and Greg’s Mom teamed up on him and forced him to quit stopping for motorists on the side of the highway.  If someone looks like they are broken down but not in immediate danger, they reasoned, it is much safer simply to use a cell phone to report it to the highway patrol than to stop in the middle of nowhere and put yourself at the potential mercy of a carjacker.

The reason we bring this up is when we called in a broken down car to the NZ police, they asked us where it was.  To which Tiffany replied that it was on the interstate southbound a few kilometers from whatever exit we had just passed.

Tiffany was very proud of herself, incidentally.  Using kilometers in conversation.

The police operator chucked and immediately asked if Tiffany was from the States.  A bit confused, (she’d used kilometers!) she replied, “Why, yes.  Did you guess that from my accent?”

New Zealand give way sign

“No, this is New Zealand.  We don’t have interstates here.”

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