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From the editor - October 2010

When we asked Bill Hastings � owner of the gorgeous Wellington apartment on page 22 of this issue � for a favourite quote he came up with a phrase from the Bible: �Go ye into all the world�. Six simple words. But to Hastings � a man who until recently was exposed to a steady diet of Technicolor horror, sex and cruelty in his job as chief censor � the phrase is so full of human hope and curiosity that, he says, it moves him to tears whenever he reads it.

This intriguing detail is hidden in a sidebar at the end (page 30) of the feature on Hastings� apartment. But the idea behind it � his awe at all the world has to offer, ripe for the discovering � perhaps explains why the home he shares with his partner and adult kids is so full of eclectic treasures from around the world. It has fine art and furniture from Paris and Canada. It has a collection of Kinder Surprise toys. It has a library and a desk for Facebooking. It has an elephant whacker from a trip to India. It is, in short, a home woven from all the colourful threads of Bill Hastings� past and present travels and family life. He can �go into all the world� without leaving the apartment.

And that, of course, is one of the best things about home � for all of us, not just Bill Hastings. Home is a place that we can fill with our choice of treasures from all over the world, but it is also the one place where we don�t actually have to interact with the world; where we can shut it all out if we want to � and even Bill Hastings likes to retreat sometimes. His apartment, he says, is a sanctuary after gritty stints in his new job as a district court judge.

Particularly right now, a lot of us share this impulse to escape to our own space sometimes. Early results from last month�s NZ House & Garden reader survey show one in four of you says your home has become more of a refuge during the global financial crisis.

Here at NZ House & Garden we�re great fans of the hunker-down-at-home trend � and ready with inspiration on how to make your personal refuge look and work even better. If Hastings� apartment doesn�t appeal, this issue has plenty of other stylish sanctuaries: an isolated wooden home on Great Barrier Island (page 32), a Dunedin church conversion with a real foodies� kitchen (page 76) and so on�

Have a good month. Go ye into all the world if you must. Or just stay at home and enjoy your own tailor-made world.

Story: Sally Duggan