Making the Papers

If Kit's small staff can make him eat bull bits, what could the Herald's staff make their editor do, hmm?

– Peter Hawes mentions editor Kit Carson

I'm quite happy for you to make a documentary on the paper, but I'd like to think that you'd get away from continuous rain, rusty buildings, dope-smoking hippies, rednecks and greenies. I think there's more to the coast, much more than that.

– Greymouth Star editor Kit Carson on avoiding West Coast clichés, early in this documentary

Hopefully the piles.

– A Greymouth resident is asked what they'll do with a power company pay-out

When you're on the coast the rest of the country — well the rest of the world — is as they say here, 'over the hill'. And that is 'the hill' [points to the Southern Alps]. So you're pretty isolated. Consequently they generate their own fun here, and as usual the staff of the Star are either enjoying it, reporting it or generating it...

– Presenter Peter Hawes on West Coasters making their own fun, late in this documentary

Sheree's great. She just does anything. She's so keen to get out on assignments and she's so energetic, and she's like a sort of an inspiration to us all.. [For] old people like me to see her energy is just amazing. I once had that sort of energy myself, but it seems to be flagging a wee bit at the moment.

– Senior Greymouth Star reporter Sue Gailbraith on her young colleague Sheree Smith

Friend and colleague Doug Sail says the community adopted [Kit] Carson as one of its own. He attributes this to Carson's willingness to always state his opinions fearlessly, a trait much admired on the coast.

– Writer Mike Crean in a profile of Kit Carson, who edited The Greymouth Evening Star from 1995 to 2005, The Press, 21 March 2015

Greymouth, surely the most literate town in the land: 10,000 people, with four local newspapers.

– Peter Hawes introduces this documentary

What I'm doing here is I'm taking a reasonably tight shot of the guy that's eating the sheep's balls, and I'm just cropping it in a little bit harder. That's quite in your face sort of sheep ball-ish, isn't it...

– Reporter Ian Gill reframes his cover photo from the Hokitika Wildfoods Festival

Where else can you play cowboys and Indians when you're over 40?

– A member of the West Coast Black Powder Shooters Association

Wellington's arts festival, Auckland's Americas Cup, forget it — down here, this is the event of the year...

– Peter Hawes on Hokitika's Wild Food Festival