Tiffany and Greg Around the World
San Jose, CA, USA
San Jose is Greg’s home town. Many of you have been told, by Greg himself even, that it’s San Francisco but it isn’t. Why were you misled? You see, the San Francisco Bay Area is huge. It’s simply massive…a mega-city that’s 7.15 million people strong. It’s actually comprised of three large cities with several dozen large towns all filling in the gaps. The entire bay is inhabited so town lines are sometimes a bit… arbitrary.
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!
Auckland, New Zealand
You’ll be happy (or envious, probably both 😉 to know that by the time December rolled around down here we managed to get full swing into summer.
And while it’s not exactly Florida temperatures, the added sunshine mixed with a stubborn defiance of the weather that the Kiwis must have inherited from their British ancestors makes for another warm-weather festive season.
Auckland, New Zealand
Kia Ora means hello in Maori, the language of the indigenous people of New Zealand.
A plane flight brought us from Tonga to Auckland where we planned to spend a week or two with friends before returning to the US for a little while.
Right up front we want to make something clear about New Zealand. It’s not like we’ve ever claimed to be completely objective in reporting to you our findings during our wanderings of the world. Though we do our best to see things from different angles and explore the cultures that produce different ways of thought from our own we also understand that we are outsiders looking in and we may not grasp everything we see in all its minutia. We are human after all. Overall though we do our best to at least give you multiple points of view. This was very difficult for us to accomplish in New Zealand for one key reason:
New Zealand is about the most awesome country we’ve ever visited in our entire lives.
Enroute Auckland, New Zealand
Before entering New Zealand we really should take a moment to recognize something we have grown to realize in our travels.
Play this while reading:
When people ask us what we think of USA & UK relations, we, without fail say the same thing:
“Britain and the US have exactly the same relationship as Greg and his sister. Allow us to elaborate: During times of peace, no one fights more with each other than the US and the UK…but the second someone else steps into the fight to attack either side, both siblings immediately turn and jump the new threat, providing each other their full and unequivocal support. Once the interloper is decimated and we’re both sure the other is alright, the two immediately turn back on each other.”
Tongatapu, Tonga
The capital island is all-in-all not as cool as Vava’u. But hey, it ain’t bad and they got the awesome fried rice we mentioned in our last post, not to mention the royal estate.
And goats! Goats they’ve got.
Vava’u, Tonga
What would a real Polynesian country have?
Well, pigs. They have a lot of pigs.
And unlike their fellow Polynesian countries, corrupted as they are by European influences, Tonga actually uses their pigs for their highest truest purpose:
Tonga has bacon!
No, not euro/Canadian inferior bacon. Real bacon. Bacon bacon. The only actual freaking pig product that deserves the title of bacon and that’s freaking bacon!
Talking to you from…
THE FUTURE! (cue Sci Fi music – dun dun duuuuuunnnnnnnn!!!!!!!!!)
Those of you that have been following along may remember that Tiffany and Greg earned the most auspicious title of “Trusty Shellbacks” by participating in an equator line crossing ceremony a few months back. What you may NOT know is that “Trusty Shellback” is only the most well-known of a plethora of unofficial awards that celebrate assorted feats of nautical daring-do. For example, both of us also hold the “Order of the Spanish Main” for sailing in the Caribbean. (No Black Pearls, though there were some drug runners) and Greg holds the coveted “Order of the Ditch” for successfully navigating thorough the Panama Canal and is also a “Plank Owner”.
There are certificates for all kinds of feats from circumnavigating the globe (Order of Magellan) to sailing in the Arctic Circle (Blue Nose) to crossing the Equator & Prime Meridian at the same time (Emerald Shellback). But the reason this matters today is that today, or, more accurately for you, tomorrow is that day, whichever it is, is the day we cross the International Date Line and become members of the Empire of the Golden Dragon!
Continue reading “No Flux Capacitor required!”
Alofi, Niue
Local: “Oh hello, you must have come on a boat.”
Look, it’s not like we don’t think this trip has profoundly affected us or something but when multiple people come up to you and say that within hours of arriving, it begs the response:
Us: “Yes we did. Um, how did you know?”
Local: “Because you’re new here and it’s not Friday.”
This answer mystified us until one Friday we came ashore and everything was closed. Literally the entire capital village…er…city of Alofi was a ghost town. Then two hours later everyone showed back up. We later found out that on Fridays the one Air New Zealand flight that services Niue, The…One…Flight… arrives on Fridays at about 1pm local time and everyone goes up to meet the new tourists.
Anyone else just flash on a little short guy shouting “de plane! de plane!”? Glad we’re not the only ones.
Funny fact: Niueans love KFC. They love it so much that locals have their family members who are flying home pick up KFC in Auckland. We are told it is extremely common to have a couple of buckets of the Colonel’s special recipe onboard the 4 hour flight.
So we’re off the boat and into the “big city” (cough, hack, giggle).
First stop, the bank. We need currency and this is where we run into our first problem. See again to remind you, there are about 1300 people total on this island. Now these 1300 people have exactly 1 bank and that one bank only accepts exactly 1 type of card: Visa. Which we don’t have. We are actually saying to you that MasterCard is not accepted in this country. At all. So when Greg walks up to the bank teller and hands her his ATM card to make a withdrawal, she hands it back and says “sorry, we don’t accept MasterCard.”
Greg: “It’s an ATM card not a credit card.”
Teller: “Sorry, we can only process Visa cards for anything.”
Greg: “Ok, no problem, is there another bank in town where I can use this card?”
Teller: Sorry, we’re the only bank in the country. (emphasis added by us)
…
Holy cow we’re in Visa commercial! Where’s the voice over guy!?
It ended up being OK because luckily, we carry some cash for emergencies. But the emergencies we were thinking of were more like “abandoned in a foreign country and need airfare” vice, “hey I’d like some local currency to buy lunch.”
But an emergency it was and we were very grateful to have the cash. So lesson learned – always carry some extra cash because you never know when the one and only bank in the country won’t take your ATM card. Because not everyone takes MasterCard, but it seems greenbacks are still universally accepted.
Like this article? For more learn more about our varied shopping adventures in Polynesia by clicking on “Haven’t had a pig roast yet…”
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, 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!
Avarua, Rarotonga, Cook Islands
As we depart Rarotonga we think we would be remiss if we failed to mention Robyn in more detail.
Remember how we said we found a group of fellow sailors our own age? Well, that wasn’t completely true. We found a group of other sailors and Robyn. See Robyn got here to the Cooks the same way most sane residents of North America (she’s Canadian) would: by plane. When we ran into her she had been living on Rarotonga for several weeks spending her days working in an organic farm part time, her evenings relaxing at her hostel or partying with the locals and her free time enjoying the island paradise she decided to call home for a few months. Yes, you heard us right. Months. Robyn wasn’t a tourist, she was a temporary resident. Continue reading “A Different Breed of Nomad”
