Phew. Ask anyone how they’re feeling right now and that seems to sum up the emotion. Phew. We made it. We got to the end of the year. Things are... okay? House prices are up, which can be concerning – if you’re trying to buy they’re too high and if you own, the rapid escalation in price seems a little crazy, like they could come down as fast as they've gone up. 

The borders are still closed, and we’re worried about that too, though there’s a sneaking feeling that having the country to yourself is actually quite nice, like when your flatmates would go away and you had the house for a weekend. When they returned it was nice to see them, but – still – the quiet had appeal. 

Slowly, life is returning to some sort of normal and the strangest year anyone can remember seems to be turning into a fading memory. Time has both slowed and sped up, become stretchy and vague, and things that happened just a few months ago seem like they happened yesterday – and the opposite is true, too. 

There’s a weariness out there – people are tired. I’m looking forward to a break. Not long after this issue goes on sale, we’ll pack up the trailer with our tent and our camping kit, the kids’ bikes and boogie boards, and we’ll head to the Coromandel for a couple of weeks’ camping at Hahei. It’s an annual ritual: we’ve done it since our son Ira was a year old, a couple of weeks in an old-school New Zealand campground on a white-sand beach. It will be busy – and, yes, that feels weird in our new Covid world – but it’s also utterly relaxing in its humdrum slowing-down and reflecting, with the daily rituals of cooking and tenting and going to the beach. 

In honour of much-needed respite, we’ve dedicated issue 04 to retreats. We nearly didn’t: the very idea of a bach seems uncommonly luxurious right now. But I figured we all like to think of ways we might find retreat and respite, whether it’s a caravan or a beach house. After the strangest, rawest year, we need it. 

Thanks for supporting this magazine in 2020 – we are forever grateful – and we look forward to seeing you again in 2021. 

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