Pause, breathe, smile SIR ASHLEY'S MISSION AFTER COVID

Our humble health hero is getting a dose of fun before his next move

- Wendyl Nissen

To many Kiwis, the description of Sir Ashley Bloomfield as a "mild-mannered healthcare hero" who helped save tens of thousands of lives during the Covid pandemic is accurate.

For others, he's nothing less than a civil service superhero, with many fans starting Facebook pages in his honour and proudly wearing Dr Ashley Curve Crusher t-shirts.

But as Ashley talks to the Weekly from Geneva, Switzerland, he looks nothing like the man who addressed the nation most days, telling us what we needed to do to stay safe during Covid.

"We've been doing some family holiday over here and that included a decent eightday walking trip in the Swiss Alps, which we finished a couple of days ago," he says.

The family of five spent a year in Geneva in 2011 when Ashley worked for the World Health Organisation (WHO), so it is familiar territory for them.

"Two of our children are travelling around Europe at the moment because they're of that age, and we brought the third over so they all enjoyed a visit back to their old house of 12 years ago and really enjoyed being back in Geneva." Ashley is relaxed, funny and by his own admission enjoying his new life after he left his position as director general of health in July last year.

"It wasn't until I actually stepped away from the role that I realised how much I was holding in my head," he reflects. "Within 24 hours, the pressure of the whole Covid experience disappeared. It was like we had a 1000-piece jigsaw puzzle, but we didn't have the box with the picture on it to help us. So we were assembling it day by day as new information came in and I was holding all that in my head. Then suddenly I didn't have to. That was a lovely thing and a great relief."