Journalism in ‘the Naki’
by Charlotte Coyle
When I first heard I was heading to New Plymouth to work at the Taranaki Daily News for a journalism field trip, I have to admit, I wasn’t too thrilled.
To be be embarrassingly honest, I have never actually been to ‘the Naki’ before, so for me the name only conjured up images of a small outlandish farming region recently torn up by tornados.
Me and farming have never seen eye-to-eye. When I was 11 I visited my friend’s farm and fell off her horse, landing directly on a barbed wire fence - I think that experience scarred me for life.
However, after doing some research I discovered Taranaki was the only region where you could ski and surf all in the same day. So, as we drove down on Sunday, in some of the heaviest rain I’ve ever experienced, I decided this trip definitely couldn’t be that bad.
After five hours of driving we finally arrived, and all six of us students checked into our marvelously retro motel in New Plymouth.
Later that night we took a drive through the town and, even though it was totally dark, I quickly realised my sheep- infested image of Taranaki wasn’t to be.
New Plymouth had everything that my home town of Rotorua had – a New World, a Burger King and a wave pool – what more could you want?
My first day on the job at the Taranaki Daily News went surprisingly smoothly.
I arrived in time for the daily 9.30 news meeting where we were able to meet the news team. Luckily, they were all pretty friendly and didn’t seem too annoyed that a bunch of naive journalism students had intruded on their well-trodden, hallowed turf.
After story ideas were casually tossed back and fourth at the meeting, we all set off on our first story of the week. Mine was on Telecom’s decision to end their School Connection Scheme, meaning schools and kindergartens all over the country would be thousands of dollars out of pocket.
All the local teachers and principals I spoke to were really friendly and more than willing to help. I was very impressed.
Looking back on the week, I had several highlights. The first was being rushed to the site of a tornado which had ripped through a trucking yard and completely toppled a truck.
I was on another job with a photographer at the time when he got a call from the newsroom explaining what had happened. Naturally, we rushed out to the scene, driving through heavy rainfall with some very unnatural cloud formations gathering in the sky above us. By the time we got to the scene, we’d just been beaten by another Daily News photographer and reporter, so sadly I missed writing the story.
The other highlight wasn’t actually an event, but rather a person.
During my time at the Daily News I was supervised by Kevin Calvert, the new executive producer of TVNZ’s 6 O’ Clock News. His amazing wealth of knowledge, skills and his general supportive nature really made the trip an enjoyable and hugely valuable experience.
At the end of the week, I left New Plymouth with a back pocket full of great memories and a handfull of my story clippings. Furthermore, I can delare that I have a new-found affinity for ‘the Naki’, and as it turns out, it’s a lot more than just farms and tornados.