Art student Lulu Wang was horrified to return from a mid-semester trip and find years' worth of artworks stolen from her Wanganui flat.
Miss Wang and her Bhutanese boyfriend Pradeep Chhetri returned from a two-week trip to China on Saturday. They discovered their warm clothes, shoes, bedding, computer and microwave had been stolen.
Worst of all, Miss Wang's three sketchbooks were gone. They contained about two years' worth of detailed drawings.
Some were work she needs for the animation diploma she is doing at Whanganui UCOL. Others she wants to show to gallery owners and exhibit.
Also gone were her Chinese medicine and all her art materials - expensive European water-colour paints and pencils and fine-tipped pens - and three tattoo guns she planned to use to transmit her designs to people's skin.