First! FIRST!!

Auckland, New Zealand

Come on, how often do you get to call first on New Years? Well, if you’re a Kiwi probably about once a year but still, we’re American so it’s cool!

Sydney claims first and the world gives it to them but that’s hogwash. Auckland is closer to the dateline, so they have lawful first claim.

Also, Sydney has fireworks off a bridge over water (weak) while Auckland launches explosives off the Sky Tower which is right over their main city buildings…way more dangerous…which means way more cool!

Ok, well, technically, neither Auckland nor Sydney are first. We’d have a much better claim to first if we were still in Tonga or any other of the pacific island countries that actually border the International Date Line. However Auckland is the first actual “major city” that the New Year graces with its presence and we were here to see that baby in!

We should mention more about the Sky Tower before we move on being as it was rather central to the display.

Presiding over the city skyline at 722 feet (220 meters) tall, the Sky Tower is Auckland’s signature structure, much like the Golden Gate in San Francisco or the Opera House in Sydney. Kiwis are very proud of this particular building and the fact that it is the tallest building in the Southern Hemisphere.

Ok, stop right there. What? Since when did we start judging things by the Hemisphere? Really, who’s in this particular competition? New Zealand, Australia and what? Brazil? Seriously?

Well, they do that down here.

(Worldwide, the Sky Tower rates #27 in “Tallest towers in the world” just behind the WITI TV Tower in the US.)

Speaking of New Years and partying, now that we’re in a country with actual farmland again we can at long last begin to get back into this wines of the world thing (YAY!). One change though. You see, as we previously stated, New Zealand has REALLY GOOD beer and we would be remiss to completely skip over that significant part of the libation production genre. Also, some regions are known for other drinks (spirits, liqueurs, schnapps, ginger beer … NZ has a killer lemon drink) that we would like to sample. So starting this Thursday (5 Jan), look up at the navigation bar and you will soon find the newly created “grog files” part of our blog.

See ‘cuz we’re sailors right? And sailors drink grog. So it’s like a theme or something 😉

We should point out that basically this is intended to serve as our little black book of drinks. Wine Spectator it is not. We’re using this part of the blog to document the drinks we find that we like so that when we get home we know what to look for (or order!) and what to avoid. Basically we’re working on our future wine cellar and home minibar. We’d like to share these insights with you so you too can benefit from our experiences. To give you an idea of our stringent rating process,

So basically we’re gonna drink and tell you how it goes. Feel free to order your own and join us 😉

More importantly, if you know of anything we should be sampling out here, please let us know!

 

How does the world determine where, exactly, the world’s day ends and begins? Find out while learning of our newly found mystical time traveling powers by clicking on “No Flux Capacitor Required!“

 

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 tasting, 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!