A Good Coat
Every time I see pictures of the interislander ferry Aratere run aground in Picton, I think about my grandmother’s coat.
Edith bought the coat in the 1950s - black Astrakhan with a rabbit fur collar, as was the fashion of the time. It would have cost an arm and a leg, and doubtless involved some “going-without”.
My grandmother was, by then, divorced and supporting herself in the workforce at a time when women mostly didn’t get divorced and become financially independent. Heaven knows what she didn’t eat to be able buy a good winter coat for a Wellington winter.
Edith was not the first woman in our line who, for one reason or another, became the family breadwinner, and did it with dignity and pride.
They also did it in style. The idea was that you should buy the best coat - or shoes, or handbag - that you could possibly afford. Quality, not quantity. So there are fabulous photos of my grandmother, great-aunt and and great-grandmother off on an outing, all matching shoes and handbags.
Stylish, but also practical. That Astrakhan coat was like wearing a whole house - insulated, impenetrable in Wellington winds. I know this because in the 1980s my grandmother passed it on to me, and I wore it for another couple of decades. Not only wore it, occasionally used it as an extra layer on my bed in a particularly damp flat in the Aro Valley and another chilly one in Christchurch.
The coat continued to be passed around the family - my mother had a turn of it, my daughter tried it briefly. Just four years ago I sent it off to another household on the off-chance it might for work for someone there.
Because by then, I’d invested in my own good winter coat. Not a bargain, not one that would do for a winter or two, but a proper coat that would work in the wind and the snow. The best coat I could afford. One that might last long enough to pass on - to my daughter or granddaughter, or onto the secondhand market for another life instead of to landfill with all the other tonnes of fast-fashion.
Not everyone can afford to do this, and there were times I couldn’t. Still, the goal should be to buy, if not the Ferrari of winter coats, then at least the best quality you can afford. Not a bargain, not a knock-off, not a tide-us-over-for-one-winter coat. An investment, if you will.
Which is how I feel about our infrastructure in general, and our Cook Strait ferries in particular. A country made of two islands should prioritise that connection - for people and for freight - and invest in something that will last for generations. Less “make do”, more “build to last”. Because if you’re going to push the boat out on anything, it should probably be our boats.