Super avant garde, super exciting.

My student Henriette and I read 'The Just So Stories' and look at Rudyard Kipling's illustrations.

Feeling the weight of bureaucracy.

Super Lady! Super Lady Painter!

Heating! Take that, winter!

We saw 'Emil und die Detektive'.

German plumbers don't work weekends. Thanks friends, it was nice to be able to feel my toes!

This year's arctic winter was brought into sharp focus.

Safe late-night arrival into Berlin. Good to be home.

Taipei! Amazing! Thanks to Ara for having us to stay.

Bye friends and families, stay well Penny. Thanks NZ for being summery and delightful!

Thanks for having us to stay Mum and Dad, see you over here in Berlin sometime soon!

A swooningly nice moment alright.

Zoe! Jared! Meredith! SO GREAT!

We arrived in Lincoln (in the South Island) to visit my family. All hail the parental fridge contents (and white wine stocks).

Petone fueled my lust for Crown Lynn crockery no end. 20kg bag limits never seemed so cruel.

In our absence New Zealand had quadrupled its cider options. This was a delicious new development.

A happy farewell. Penny don't you dare lift those arms...

Stingrays! Snapper! Goatfish! I have discovered a new joy in life.

Possibly my greatest sporting triumph.

My second sea swim and first time to the Hibiscus Coast. I could have stayed in the warm water for hours.

Crossing Waitemata Harbour on the tiny Stanley Bay ferry was a summer sun joy. The rest of Auckland's public transport was, well, woeful.

Martha (lives in NYC) and I bonded over suddenly being thrust into summer-length shorts. Flabby and white barely begins to describe the horror...

All our spirits were lifted when Penny completed the first of many cryptic crosswords post-coma.

Sam's parents' house overlooks a pōhutukawa tree, a cabbage tree, the NZ Navy marae and Ngataringa Bay. It's nice.

First beach swim in more than a year!! And turns out my pasty skin has a burn time of 3mins 52seconds. Sigh.

RIP Ottie - I'll miss your big eyes and velvety ears.

The heat was oppressive; the music and cider, joyous.

The first of our daily (intrepid) visits to the hospital.

During our 30 hour trip Sam's Mum came out of the coma. She was still alive, but weak, and it was a joyous trip from the airport to the hospital, and a family dinner of laughter instead of tears.

It's times like this you realise that Berlin is pretty much the furthest distance away from New Zealand as you can get. I guess it has more emergency transport options than the Bolivian jungle though.

Biggie Smalls was definitely feeling on the more conspicuous side of his name.

When work rains, it pours like a devastating monsoon of tiredness.