It's classified: Couple learn baby's gender in the NZ Herald

A small pink square in the back of the NZ Herald might have seemed like an error to readers, but for an Auckland couple it was their way of finding out they were having another girl.

Hamish Mullan, 36, and his wife Karen, 34, wanted to have some fun when finding out whether they were having a son or daughter so decided to read it in the NZ Herald.

"We thought about how it would be a bit of fun to do something a little bit different. People just do cakes and balloons and I thought I work for the Herald so why don't I put a small ad in the Herald and reveal the colour that way to find out what we are going to be having," Hamish, an NZME account manager said.

"It's a bit more fun to find [out] outside a doctor's clinic really. Something a bit different."

He raised the idea with his manager who thought it was a great idea so he made sure there was a space for his ad in last Friday's paper in the amusement section which he oversees.

After having the 20-week scan on Tuesday, the ultrasound technician placed a note with the baby's gender into an envelope.

Before Hamish went home he handed the envelope to the Herald's pre-press production team with instructions to place a pink square for a girl and blue for a boy.

At 6am on Friday morning the couple and their 3-year-old daughter Imogen raced to their letterbox so they could to beat Hamish's in-laws who live next door, and took the paper back to bed with them.

There on page 37 - opposite the puzzle section - was a pink square with the words "congratulations guys".

Hamish said he and his wife were a little bit surprised at the news they were having another daughter as they'd had an inkling they might have been having a boy given how different the two pregnancies had been.

However it delighted young Imogen who had told her parents she wanted a baby sister. "She was pretty happy when we told her what she was having, she was pretty stoked."

Hamish said they posted a note on Facebook on Thursday night telling friends and family about their unique gender reveal and had enjoyed hearing how even people outside Auckland had purchased papers to find out what the couple's second child was going to be.

The colour square in the Herald. Photo / Jason Oxenham

"My cousin and her local baristas had fun scrambling through the Herald to find the correct page ... People were having a good time with it."

He said for their first daughter the couple just opened the envelope over a coffee and breakfast at a cafe to find out what they were having.

"Not quite as imaginative as our second one unfortunately. We might pay for that a bit later on when we tell her - nothing much really. But it was still a surprise."

There was now pressure on them to have a third to see how they could top this announcement.