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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