Neighbours Day Aotearoa, the annual celebration of neighbourhoods and the power of human connection, starts this weekend. It's a timely reminder of the big rewards that can come from small gestures, writes Sarah Lang.

'The coldest winter I ever spent was a summer in Wellington,' Mark Twain almost said (the apocryphal saying is actually about San Francisco, close enough). But not this year. The city is basking in a long stretch of hot weather – and some residents are not coping.

Did anyone in Wellington actually get any work done last week? Sarah Lang suspects not.