The iconic Blossom Parade could not have returned at a more opportune time.
Hawke's Bay is an incredible place to live.
It is a vibrant, happy, multicultural province in which talented and tolerant people routinely do exceptional things.
Many of us could live anywhere in New Zealand - oranywhere in the world for that matter - and we choose to be here. It's a place that we love and are immensely proud of.
We hear plenty from the loud ones, the angry and dissatisfied ones, the ones who seek to tell us this is a country divided.
We in the media don't always help. In fact we can be doom-and-gloom merchants at the best of times.
We can become fixated with various grievances and injustices. We can push unhelpful and unjustified barrows.
We seek, at times, to incite a dislike of one another and to inflame situations.
That's not the New Zealand I live in and it's definitely not the New Zealand I saw at Saturday's Blossom Parade in Hastings.
Kids enjoying a Blossom Parade foam party. Photo / Paul Taylor
What I saw made me proud to be a New Zealander. It reminded me of all the communities and cultures that make up Hawke's Bay and it reinforced my view that most of us are very content with our lives and that we relish each other's company.
Some of the things I read and see and hear suggest to me that isn't the case. That we exist in silos and echo chambers and have no tolerance for anyone else.
Well, I'm tired of all that talk. Tired of grievances and agendas. Tired of being told what's wrong with me - and what's wrong with us - and how things have to change.
