Lynley Ward, a 60-year-old from Auckland, thought she could ride out what started as a vicious sore throat, chills, vomiting and diarrhoea on a Tuesday evening in March. Two days later she couldn't speak, couldn't keep anything down and was struggling to breathe. A doctor at her local A&E sent her straight to Waitākere Hospital, where a test confirmed influenza A — and she says it was the sickest she had ever been in her life.

Ward spent eight hours on IV fluids, anti-nausea medication and antivirals before she started to feel human again. By midnight, the hospital was overflowing; nurses were treating people in the corridor and had little time to check on her. When a doctor offered her the choice of staying or going home, she chose to leave, reasoning that the patients outside sounded far sicker than she was. Recovery was slow: nearly a week passed before she could walk across a room without collapsing back into bed, and it took days more before she felt strong enough to work.

Her timing, in retrospect, was almost lucky. She caught the virus before the winter flu season peaked and before the 2026 vaccine rollout began, and she was treated in a quiet March hospital rather than a swamped winter one. The variant now circulating — influenza A H3 subclade K, dubbed "super-K" — is new, highly transmissible and can cause severe illness. Auckland's flu hospitalisation rate has sat in the "very high activity band" for four consecutive weeks, and Health NZ expects pressure on the health system to continue for another three to four weeks. In the first week of September alone, 18 respiratory illness outbreaks were reported, with influenza the most common pathogen.

The practical message for anyone travelling to or around New Zealand during the southern winter is straightforward. Public health physician Hannah Cooper of PHF Science says this year's vaccine is well matched to subclade K and remains the best defence against severe disease — particularly for over-65s, pregnant women, young children and anyone with conditions like diabetes or heart disease. If you do catch flu, most people recover at home with rest, fluids, steam inhalation and paracetamol, but see a doctor if you're not improving after a few days or fall into a high-risk group. And if you're sick, stay put rather than pushing on with your itinerary — that's how Ward's near-catastrophic case turns into a story instead of a statistic.

Ward, who hadn't been able to get the shot before falling ill, is now firmly converted: "I will be vigilant. I hope I never get it again. It's really nasty." For travellers, her account is a useful reality check that flu is not a cold, and that getting vaccinated before a winter trip to New Zealand is worth the detour to a pharmacy or clinic.