After completing a BSc(Hons) in Chemistry, what sparked your decision to move into journalism?
I was fascinated by chemistry, learning how atoms combine and interact to make up every single thing around us from living creatures and inanimate objects to the stars in the sky. However, the sorry truth was that my book knowledge did not translate to skills in the lab. I found practical work frustrating (and overly pungent), so I knew a three-year PhD spent hunched under a fume hood was not for me.
I began looking for something better suited; I could write and had natural curiosity about the world so, maybe journalism? Places on Canterbury’s one-year post-graduate diploma course were highly sought-after, so it felt like a long-shot. To my amazement, I was accepted and it proved a perfect fit. Journalism allowed me to channel my curiosity into the real world: stepping into people’s lives, uncovering unfairness, challenging bureaucracy, holding the powerful to account. It felt meaningful and rewarding.
With a career spanning more than 30 years in New Zealand and the UK, what moments stand out as defining highlights?
Undoubtedly, it was my time as The Press chief reporter during the Canterbury earthquakes. Like thousands of others, I was jolted awake at 4.35am on September 4, 2010. My first instinct wasn't as a journalist, but as a mother, scrambling down the hallway to hold my two sons tight until the house stopped shaking. Then my phone (a Blackberry) pinged. It was editor, Andrew Holden, checking in. Messages from reporters and photographers soon followed. What should they do? Where should they go? My work had begun.
Reporting on a major event that was also causing disruption in our personal lives was challenging. Our newsroom was displaced multiple times as our heritage building in Cathedral Square shook unnervingly with each large aftershock. Engineers would inspect it, and deem it safe to return, though the business and sports departments were put out of bounds. When the big one struck on February 22, 2011, the taped off areas saved lives, though not all. Tragically we lost one colleague as the top two floors of our building effectively pancaked. We moved again, eventually ending up in rows of portacabins parked in the printing plant carpark. They were freezing in winter and sweltering in summer, but we were lucky to have jobs when so many livelihoods were destroyed.
In May 2012, The Press became the first business to return to the central city red zone where we had the privilege of watching the city rebuild around us.
Fifteen years later, the "then and now" images assembled for the recent anniversary stand as a powerful reminder of what we have been through.
You’ve reported on some challenging and complex stories – how do you approach and process that work?
The earthquakes created a lot of physical and practical challenges for many reporters - showering at work and doing laundry at the print site because we had no running water at home. But the emotional toll of March 15, 2019, was of a different magnitude. The mosque attacks were an incomprehensible horror born of deliberate malice.
Our editorial strategy was set within hours: to focus on the victims, not the terrorist. We committed to telling the stories of the 51 people whose lives ended on that day. It brought a profound, deep sadness to the newsroom and the city. Yet, I will never forget the grace of the families. Despite their grief, they welcomed our reporters into their homes offering tea, food, and, remarkably, spoke of forgiveness. I was humbled by their response and ashamed I had known so little about the Muslim faith before this tragedy.
Stuff provided face-to-face counselling to help reporters process what they were seeing and hearing. US newsrooms who had experience of reporting on mass shootings reached out to us. And Media Chaplain Frank Ritchie visited and told us that journalists are also "first responders" and can suffer a form of second-hand trauma.
As Editor of The Press, what does a typical day look like for you, and what do you enjoy most about the role?
The "scaffolding" of my day is built around twice-daily news meetings, but what happens between those meetings is entirely unpredictable. I work closely with our news directors as they juggle the minute-by-minute demands of publishing to our website thepress.co.nz, the needs of print production, and the story ideas which pour in from individuals and organisations.
My role is partly that of a sounding board: nutting out ethical dilemmas, navigating legal hurdles, or overseeing ambitious long-term projects. A recent highlight was our Who Owns Christchurch? investigation, where generative AI was used to parse massive datasets to identify the city’s major property titans.
Looking back on your time at UC, what are some of your favourite memories from your studies and campus life?
I was a student in the 1980s when New Zealand’s music scene was in its prime. Orientation Week became the highlight of each year; it was where I saw my favourite artists perform live from a long line of Flying Nun greats to Australian icons The Go-Betweens and Hunters & Collectors, and the UK’s Billy Bragg.
Though I had a packed timetable of science lectures and labs, I found time to discover the Uni gym where I had my first taste of circuit training, essentially a precursor to the more recent F45 craze. I still love circuit training.
There was also the Student Union cafe. It was the social heart of the campus; an enormous space with affordable, tasty food and a guarantee of running into friends. I had a lot of happy memories there and was sorry to see it pulled down after the quakes.
Any additional comments or remarks you'd like to make?
I look back on my five years at the University of Canterbury with enormous fondness. I learnt so much, made many good friends, and was given the opportunity to train in what was an unexpected but hugely rewarding career.
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