Friday morning Kyle returned our rental car early, then came back to sleep in a bit on a rainy morning. We spent our last afternoon in New Zealand walking around Auckland and and touring Voyager: the New Zealand Maritime Museum. We took a harbor cruise on the museum's traditional scow, the Ted Ashby.
As the country has a rich maritime history, it was interesting to learn about the history of Auckland as a port and the more recent sailing culture. The museum had exhibits on everything from traditional South Pacific canoes to the America's Cup racing yachts. It was the perfect place to explore on a cool and rainy day.
Our flight was early Saturday morning and we had a 7 hour layover in Sydney. Our intention was to leave the airport and make our way down to the Sydney Harbor for the day, but when we got to immigration, we realized that I'd let our Australian Visas expire. I knew that I'd had to get an online visa before, but I thought it lasted 3 years or so. Nope, just one. I was mad about it all day.
However the airport did have free wifi so Kyle took a nap, while I took care of some work email to dig myself out of the hole from being gone so long. It was actually a fairly painless and productive day.
The worst part was the walkway between terminals as we were returning from our failed attempt to enter the country. A glass wall gave us a view of the restaurants available on the other side of immigration. And what did we see? A Krispy Kreme.
You may remember our joy at Krispy Kreme in Shanghai.
Suddenly Kyle wanted a Krispy Kreme donut more than anything. We could SEE the Krispy Kreme. We stood and stared at the glass wall. We considered writing a sign and holding it up for anyone who was eating, but would be coming through to our side eventually. We considered sending out a tweet to anyone in the Sydney airport. We considered paying off an airport employee. He just wanted one donut; it's not like we were asking anyone to do anything illegal.
After ruling out those possibilities as sketchy and/or likely to get us arrested, we walked sadly back to our own Krispy Kreme-free restaurants. We both got a salad for lunch and sat down to eat. I got up at one point to fill up our water bottle when what did I notice in the garbage can? A Krispy Kreme box.
The box was just laying on top of the pile. The box was closed and it wasn't smushed, or damaged in any way. And there were two donuts inside.
It was like they were a consolation prize for the visa debacle.
I walked back to the table and told Kyle. We sat and thought. How awful is it to eat donuts out of the trash can in the Sydney airport? Well, they're not actually IN the trash can. They're in a box. That just happens to be laying in (on, really) the trash can.
Kyle got up and grabbed the box before the "on top" and "not smushed or damaged" part of our argument could be voided.
So we sat and stared at the box of donuts.
Perfect condition in every way. And really, was eating one of these donuts any different from asking a stranger to buy some and bring them to us? I mean, basically that's what had happened.
So... what would you have done?
As the country has a rich maritime history, it was interesting to learn about the history of Auckland as a port and the more recent sailing culture. The museum had exhibits on everything from traditional South Pacific canoes to the America's Cup racing yachts. It was the perfect place to explore on a cool and rainy day.
Our flight was early Saturday morning and we had a 7 hour layover in Sydney. Our intention was to leave the airport and make our way down to the Sydney Harbor for the day, but when we got to immigration, we realized that I'd let our Australian Visas expire. I knew that I'd had to get an online visa before, but I thought it lasted 3 years or so. Nope, just one. I was mad about it all day.
However the airport did have free wifi so Kyle took a nap, while I took care of some work email to dig myself out of the hole from being gone so long. It was actually a fairly painless and productive day.
The worst part was the walkway between terminals as we were returning from our failed attempt to enter the country. A glass wall gave us a view of the restaurants available on the other side of immigration. And what did we see? A Krispy Kreme.
You may remember our joy at Krispy Kreme in Shanghai.
Suddenly Kyle wanted a Krispy Kreme donut more than anything. We could SEE the Krispy Kreme. We stood and stared at the glass wall. We considered writing a sign and holding it up for anyone who was eating, but would be coming through to our side eventually. We considered sending out a tweet to anyone in the Sydney airport. We considered paying off an airport employee. He just wanted one donut; it's not like we were asking anyone to do anything illegal.
After ruling out those possibilities as sketchy and/or likely to get us arrested, we walked sadly back to our own Krispy Kreme-free restaurants. We both got a salad for lunch and sat down to eat. I got up at one point to fill up our water bottle when what did I notice in the garbage can? A Krispy Kreme box.
The box was just laying on top of the pile. The box was closed and it wasn't smushed, or damaged in any way. And there were two donuts inside.
It was like they were a consolation prize for the visa debacle.
I walked back to the table and told Kyle. We sat and thought. How awful is it to eat donuts out of the trash can in the Sydney airport? Well, they're not actually IN the trash can. They're in a box. That just happens to be laying in (on, really) the trash can.
Kyle got up and grabbed the box before the "on top" and "not smushed or damaged" part of our argument could be voided.
So we sat and stared at the box of donuts.
Perfect condition in every way. And really, was eating one of these donuts any different from asking a stranger to buy some and bring them to us? I mean, basically that's what had happened.
So... what would you have done?
Seems like God was showing you it doesn't have to be a huge need or desire for him to fulfill it. I would have said thank you God! Ate them with a smile.