Beer from The Good Home in New Plymouth!
Today was intense but I’ve loved every moment!
I interviewed Andrea Jupp about some funding she recently got for her dementia organisation, I interviewed Taryn Utiger over a beer about the upcoming ‘Hug A Ginger Day’, I photographed Taryn with Matt Davy from The Edge (which was funny, I’ll get to why later), and interviewed + photographed Philippa Mahood, who is New Plymouth’s biggest Shortland Street fan!
Matt parked up The Edge Roadrunner outside Puke Ariki, and it was hilarious because all these gangsters who were chilling out on the landing quickly jumped up and came over wanting free stuff, lol! Kinda awkward but funny. We took some really good shots of him with Taryn – ‘Hug A Ginger Day’ is run by The Edge, and has been for the last 6 years in order to stop bullying against the red-headed people in our society. It’s going to be a really fun story, I hope it gets published!
As student journalists, while it’s our aim to write 30 stories in a year, there is never a guarantee it will be published in the paper. The chief reporter reads stories from his own journalists, and then slots ours in if he can. So it’s always a huge privilege if we manage to get a story in! Justin Butler from our class had a front page story today, which was really cool! I hope I get one soon, but it depends on the story 
My photography is getting much better which is exciting, but our best class photographer is Taryn without a doubt. She is so brilliant at whatever she does, and I really admire that! I’ll admit it was fun having a beer with her this afternoon, we must do that more often!
Just in case you’re wondering why I had the day off – Wednesdays for our class, are dedicated to newsgathering so there is no requirement to go to class. We conduct interviews, and write stories. If they are time sensitive, we can drop into the newsroom for editing with our tutor Robin (but he couldn’t make it today).
I am really loving journalism and the friends I’m making! Coming home from Hamilton to study at Witt has been the best decision I’ve ever made 
