Day 1 (Continued) – Travel to Auckland

Packing light

One reason I didn't want Tina to know about the trip details was because of the stress it would give her in packing. She has only packed enough clothes for 7 days even though the trip is much longer. She will either kill me or thank me... time will tell. Of course I have a plan. When we get to the U.S. she will be allowed to go on a shopping spree and get more clothes. She'll like that!!!

Close calls

We had four close calls on the first day where Tina almost found out more about the trip. She is suspicious now, but she still doesn't know.

Close call 1: Airport checkin.

I made a small sign I've been handing to people that reads:

This trip is a surprise for my wife (20^th Anniversary)

PLEASE don't discuss the details of the itinerary. Thank you

The man at the checkin counter read the sign and just stared at me. He than said, “Uh... I need paperwork...” I simply handed him an envelope with all the details. That was fine and he checked us in without another word. As we left he just had a big grin on his face. I said “THANK YOU!!!” as we left. Tina turned to me and said, 'That was weird. Why did he want 'Paperwork'?” I told her that flying Air New Zealand was often like that. They checked a lot more of the trip details than most airlines...

Close call 2: Sydney customs

When it came time to go through customs, I made the mistake of letting Tina start filling out the exit cards. I completely forgot that the card asks how long you'll be away. She was going to put “7 days.” I made up some excuse why the cards were wrong and I quickly went over to another counter, picked out two new cards and filled them out. Tina is used to having me do all the paperwork, so she must have thought that was strange, but she didn't say anything...

Close call 3: Auckland customs

When I gave my passport and papers to the customs guy in Auckland, I didn't have my “special card” handy. So it took me about 10 seconds to fish it out of my pocket. Meanwhile, the guy said, “You are only staying here two days?” I handed him the card and he just smiled and saw the itinerary. He promptly stamped our passports and waved us through without another word. Again, Tina said, “That was strange.” I mentioned that we only had two days hotel booked and that he was probably suspicious about that.

Close call 4: Calvary Chapel Auckland

I had shared the fact that I was doing this holiday for Christmas and our 20th wedding anniversary with some of the people at church. One of them mentioned that I had taken Tina here to Auckland for our anniversary! Tina simply corrected him and said this was just a quick get-away and that our anniversary wasn't until January 13th! hehehe...

Between these four events, I suspect Tina knows somethings up. She'll find out for sure on day 3!!!

Calvary Chapel Auckland

We found out that Calvary Chapel Auckland was meeting on Sunday night. We decided to run over there after getting off the airplane. We had a WONDERFUL time with that group. Thanks Andre'!