Breaking along the beach with a joyful sound

We near the end of summer and collectively turn towards a new tenure.  Today the weather is telling us time is turning – always more quickly than we are ready for.

Tamaki has many meanings in the Māori language, but it is the indigenous name of the city I grew up in – Auckland.

As a city, one of its many pleasures is the proximity and plentiful nature of beaches and water. To swim in, to sail on or to gaze out to, it creates a way of living that is quite rare, gentle and precious. To ‘go to the beach’ is palpable freedom for most of us. Simple sandcastles and happy floating. How can we hold onto this feeling in the depths of gloomier weather and times?

Bare feet, lapping water and hot sand underfoot are surely some of life’s greatest pleasures. And perhaps even more so when we know that the seasons are turning and the salty goodness of late summer sun waits for another day, another year, another life.

Water carries us – for quick dips and long, life-changing hauls, depending on our luck.

So I have tried to capture this feeling in a colour – both of sun and of good fortune. Pale sunny blue, but with undertones of sand and human kindness.

Tamaki, I hope, brings you hazy, sunshiny pleasure. A joyful wave to freedom.