Up early again to clean up the maggot and pack all our belongings. No trouble getting to the Apollo campervan stir but discovered there were quite a few people there to pick up maggots so we had to wait for a while to be processed. Gary and Sunni tried to get the shuttle to the airport but the guy was having none of it until our van was checked. The owner told me they were processing 42 vans that day. Their lives were not made simpler with this one fellow who stormed back into the office saying he had ordered a Mercedes Sprint and had received a Volkswagon. He was not taking no for an answer and when we left 2 hours later, he was still on his phone. Everything went well and we received a brand new 2 person van with only 12,000 km on it. Gary, if you are reading this, the midi-maggot is a joy to drive, very stable on the road, lots of power and it was possible to set the max speed at 100 km so we don't break any speeding laws. It is so much easier to drive than the maggot. As it is smaller, we have nicknamed it Helga the Midi-maggot. The trip from Auckland to Wellington was a long one. We left Auckland at 11:20am and headed south through Hamilton and then took the highway to the west of Lake Taupo which was a great decision! There was hardly any traffic, the roads were straight with very beautiful countryside to look at as we drove. Jos, the desert road was a piece of cake this time, no wind and little traffic. The constabulary had a radar trap about halfway down the road. I guess people drive faster when the wind is not so strong. We stopped to fill up the diesel in Waiouru and then headed south to Palmerston North. My butt was starting to feel the effects of the drive so we stopped at Bull to stretch. A moments inattention and I almost hit a car in a roundabout. Have to remember the look right rule!!! We made it to Wellington at 7:45pm just as the sun was setting. I missed the Lower Hutt turnoff and so we found ourselves in the middle of downtown Wellington. Oh well, Jean got a close look at the Beehive, seat of NZ power. Finally navigated my way back onto the motorway and we arrived at the camper site at about 8:30pm. We made pretty good time considering it was supposed to take 9.5 hours. We had not unpacked anything so, prior to eating, we stowed all our gear. The midi-maggot is much smaller than the maxi-maggot so it took some doing to get it all stowed. We had one meat pie to share between us and some fruit buns so we had a quick dinner and then made the bed. We were in bed at about 10:30 pm and oh joy!! The bed was roomy with so much headroom and we both slept like babies. The campground at Lower Hutt (just at the east end of Wellington) was one of the best we have been to. Very large showers with lots of hot water. Won't be able to post this as we will be up very early to catch the ferry.