Content revision 4e771eaf0390cc87b6c7c6fd8469f3508f6ceeec7119472e6c1ccf17e2e1e5d2

## Napier Seaside with My Mother

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Source ID fragments:napier-seaside-with-my-mother
Original https://www.henryw.me/#/fragments#napier-seaside-with-my-mother

Napier seaside is one of the places I connect with my mother. She lives around Hastings and Havelock North, and when I went back to New Zealand she would sometimes drive me to Napier. It was not a big trip, just a short drive to the water.

I still remember it quite clearly: the car ride, the road, arriving near the sea, walking for a while, maybe not even talking much. It was ordinary, but it was one of the few things we did together there again and again.

My family's connection with New Zealand is a little scattered. My sister studied there, my mother stayed for her, and later that area became part of my mother's own life too. For me the country was never only a travel destination. It was also where part of my family was living without me. So when she drove me to Napier, it felt like I was briefly stepping into that part of her life.

I don't remember Napier as just a beautiful seaside so much as somewhere my mother brought me, and maybe that is enough.