Parliament at night is a different vibe to Parliament during the day. Staff numbers on precinct have mostly thinned out, but it's a time when the weird and wonderful can happen.
As the light outside starts to dim, and Wellington's office workers make their dreary way homewards from the city, the day is over for many people.
At Parliament, numbers have thinned out and the press gallery have largely gone home to monitor Twitter, but a world of work is just beginning.
As 7pm approaches, having paused for dinner, a gaggle of MPs slowly drift back into the chamber. It's a low-key resumption, a far cry from the theatrics of Question Time earlier in the day.
Usually there are a lot more empty seats in the chamber during the night than there are during the day. Throughout the evening MPs are often working in their offices, and deploy to the chamber when necessary.
"Unless you've got leave, while Parliament's sitting we have to be here on precinct. No shooting across the road to the Backbencher," explained Labour MP Greg O'Connor.
"While it might look like there's not much happening, an incredible number of meetings are taking place, like on a Tuesday or Wednesday night I'll be meeting with ministers regarding select committees, depending on which select committee you're on. And people will be coming and going from those meetings and will be keeping an eye on the screen on the TV to see when they're up, how quickly bills are going through or when their duty is on.
"I liken it to an ant hill. You cut an ant hill in half and there's all these ants scurrying around. You can't put another ant in there because it'll get eaten. People are going in a lot of different directions, but they know where they're going," he said.
Vibes in the chamber at night are usually quite different to the day. MPs are often considering the finer points of legislation, and while the pace is less frenetic and there may only be a dozen or so members in the chamber, debate can be intense. Especially during the committee stages of end-of-life legislation and abortion law reform legislation, debates were high on energy running late into the night.
According to Assistant Speaker Jacqui Dean, who sometimes runs the House during the evenings, speeches during the evening offer free range for the MP who is passionate on their subject.
"Certainly the energy is different than at Question Time. Because at Question Time rather than the Opposition, who get to ask the questions, and the government members (who get to ask questions) are really in the main just reading a script, and then the Government has more or less free-range, whereas in the evenings members have free range…