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Postcard from Tauranga, New Zealand

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This is a bit of a time travelling postcard. I was here about seven months ago, and can remember it vividly. Just the names Tauranga, and Mount Maunganui were exciting. They were names I’d known ever since my cousins moved there, many years earlier.

Turns out Tauranga is all about the ocean. It has miles and miles of white sand beach on one side, and a big harbour on the other. On a map it looks a bit like a bottle opener – the beach running all down the long arm, with Mount Maunganui like a nose on the end, above the claw of the opener bit, which is surrounded by bays.

I never climbed Mount Maunganui but I walked all around it, about two metres above the ocean with the wind sending waves crashing towards us. We started on the harbour side, and walked around to the beach side. It was beautiful. Two big seals on the rocks, and a little blue penguin, busy swimming somewhere.

It was only when I was on the bus leaving Tauranga, which is a big place by the way – largest city in the Bay of Plenty, that I noticed the piles and piles of pine logs stacked along the quays waiting for delivery. Someone told me they were destined for China. Not sure if they’ve got there yet.

Hope this reaches you.

Copyright Georgie Knaggs & The Phraser 2023

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Postcard from Margate

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We’ve just spent the night in one of Margate’s oldest, now newest hotels – the Fort Road Hotel. Apparently Turner (the artist) would have known it when it was the Fort Castle Public House. We loved our room and the little blue booklet in it, packed with information. It talked about the hotel and the area, and the artists connected with the town, then had details on the furniture and art in each room. I’ve never seen that before. It really made us look and appreciate.

The next day we wandered along the seafront and around the town. The skies were grey to start and the cold wind never left, so we split our time between the outdoors, and the record stores and book shops, with a fair few brunch stops in between. The last of them was in the late afternoon. That was when the sun came out, and so did the walkers and the dogs. The shadows were beautiful.

Hope all well with you.

Copyright Georgie Knaggs & The Phraser 2023

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Ukraine – always in our news

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This flag was flying in New Zealand when I was there last year.

Wherever I see the flag, the blue and yellow seem so full of sunshine and hope, despite the bitter assault faced by the country it flies for.

Ukraine has been in the UK news for over a year now. We hear daily of devastation, too horrifying to believe at times, and yet it is happening – families, lives, whole towns are being destroyed. And the abuse is multiplying, continuing through the freeze of winter.

As we listen, one question, keeps repeating in my heart. Surely we cannot be doing this to each other now? History is flooded with needless bloodshed, but that is history. Surely not now?

And yet the scarring continues. Last Saturday in Dnipro, an apartment block full of life was shelled. A few days ago a helicopter crashed on to a kindergarten. And all the while, thousands of troops on both sides are losing their lives.

The trauma reaches us daily through the media. Like a muffled pain it throbs incessantly, flaring suddenly with news of a disaster, or stilling briefly, before hopes of talks collapse. It seems wrong to continue our day to day around it, but that is what we do.

And over us, and in between us and our every day lives, the beautiful flag keeps flying.

Copyright Georgie Knaggs & The Phraser 2023