Living in London, I always find myself going out of my way to avoid the madness of the city. I don't shop on Oxford Street at the weekends unless I absolutely have to. I don't go near the crazy tourist zones around Westminster Abbey or the Portobello Road Markets. And if it's sunny outside, I find a nice quiet corner in Holland Park rather than going to Hyde Park.

But every now and then you've got to embrace the lunacy of living in London - a city which is always swarming with tourists and crowds. In moments of boredom or insanity I have even been known to enter the eye of the storm like I did on a recent Friday night when I visited the London Eye - the tallest Ferris wheel in Europe.

It's just like making sure you can tick the Sky Tower off the list in Auckland. Riding the London Eye, which is also known as the Millennium Wheel, was something I'd wanted to do since arriving in England. We chose to visit on a beautiful summer's night, even though that meant braving the beige brigade - the masses of tourists who always seem to dress in neutral tones and make moving around the city nearly impossible.

The Eye hangs off the side of London's South Bank, which was buzzing with activity when we arrived. We squished past the cheesy 'Movieum' and the always-chocka London Aquarium and the masses of people had me imagining a sea of beige we'd have to wait in to get our half-hour on the Eye.

And that was when London, the city where people line up for decades to withdraw 20 pounds, completely shocked me.  Despite large lines, we didn't have to queue till our next birthdays - we discovered an  efficient system actually exists in London!

The beauty of the London Eye is the enormous glass capsules give visitors plenty of room and the most excellent views of the city. The wheel is designed so that it never has to stop rotating so you can step on and off without any hold-ups.

After taking in the views of Westminster Abbey, the Thames, St Paul's Cathedral and the gleaming Gherkin, we continued along the South Bank for a delicious dinner in a busy restaurant, and the atmosphere of the fellow diners, musicians, skateboarders and cyclists made me realise that London is surely at its best on a humming summer's night.

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