John McDermott has had some tough assignments over the past 45 years.
But, the long-serving TVNZ Otago bureau chief, who retired yesterday, wouldn't have changed channels for anything.
"The hardest stories have been the painful ones, like Aramoana," he recalled this week.
"That was terrible. That was really tough. But, the story that affected me the most was, and still is, the murder of Kylie Smith in Owaka [on November 1, 1991]. She was the same age [15] as my daughters at the time.
"We were there for the search on the day when she was a missing person and then it turned sinister and then they found her body. For something like that to happen in a small community like that was as shocking then as it would be today.
"I got to know Bevan and Dawn Smith well and admired them tremendously for the campaign they waged on behalf of their daughter and they're still fighting today to keep him [killer Paul David Bailey] locked up.
"The Bain case also affected every journalist in Dunedin. I'll never forget that freezing cold Dunedin morning. It was still dark when we got there. For the first two or three days, it seemed like murder-suicide. Then it changed and kept changing for another 15 years.
"That would be the thing people have asked me about the most over the years. But, as a journalist, obviously you have to keep your thoughts to yourself. I think journalists need to be seen to be impartial, but you still have your own thoughts, of course, which you naturally, as a human being, share with family and close friends.
"One of the weirder events I've experienced was coming out of a bowling meeting at the Kaikorai Bowling Club in 1967 and I was waiting outside for a taxi when I heard a gun go 'bang' and a bullet flew past my head. The police carried out an investigation, but nobody was ever arrested and I never found out what that was all about. But it goes to show; even covering bowls can be dangerous."
However, the highs have far outweighed the lows for McDermott, or "Derm", as he's been known since his King's High School days.
"The great thing about journalism is that every day is different and every day is a new challenge. Every day you have a clean sheet and you never know what you're going to be doing," he says.
"And you meet so many people. I've met hundreds and hundreds and hundreds of people in Otago and Southland. Some of them on the very best day of their lives and some of them, sadly, on the very worst day of their lives.
"Sometimes you have to go and knock on a door after something terrible, like someone's been murdered, which is horrible for them and not very nice for us, either. You dread it. But people are invariably really understanding in those situations.
"I've met lots of amazing people, like Sir Edmund Hillary, who I interviewed two or three times. I've always been a madly keen sportsperson, so I've also enjoyed the opportunity to get to know some of our top sportspeople.
"I was in the same class at King's as [former Otago and All Blacks coach] Laurie Mains. Little did I know then that I'd end up interviewing him dozens, if not scores, of times."
It could all have been very different for the 64-year-old.
"I originally went to teachers college, but quickly worked out I wasn't cut out to be a teacher. So I sat down with Dad (Cyril McDermott) one day when I was about 19 and he said 'Well, you've always had a nice way with words, son. What about giving journalism a try?'
"And here I am, 1100 pay packets later. Thank you, Dad."
Derm started television in Dunedin in 1967 on Town and Around, the genesis of Otago-Southland regional bulletins The South Tonight and 7.30 South.
"In the early days of the NZBC, we'd do the radio bulletins as well as TV. We'd be out on jobs with two microphones; one for the TV camera and one for the tape recorder, to go back and do the radio bit for the midday bulletin," he recalled.
"Television was black and white back then. Stories were shot on 100 feet (30.5m) of black-and-white negative film and we were expected to work to a one-in-three ratio. A hundred feet of film was two minutes 40 seconds in duration, so we would try to use about a minute of that; maybe 50 seconds. The rest would go on the cutting-room floor.
"The film was physically cut and spliced with glue. Now, 45 years later, we shoot in the field and edit and download the pictures into the laptop on the front seat of the car and email them out. I couldn't possibly have envisaged back in the black-and-white days what I would end up doing 45 years later.
"We had some real characters back then. There was one old guy who would always bring a thermos of soup in to work and sip away at it all day. It was always filled with lentils and noodles and, it turned out, vodka as well.
"Just about everyone in the office smoked. Typewriters would be clacking away and you couldn't see across the room because the smoke was so thick."
Derm worked in Invercargill and New Plymouth, where he met his wife, Margaret, and they returned to Dunedin in 1973 to marry.
The young couple moved to Christchurch in 1974, where their daughters, Kate (36), Rachel (35) and Susan (31), were born.
"That was my biggest move. I was up there for 12 years as chief reporter and editor. That was my highest position with TVNZ."
He returned to Dunedin in 1985 as editor of The South Tonight.
"I also started to do some reporting again, because the redundancies were going on and so I had to get out and keep stories flowing through. We were told regional news was going to close down at the end of 1990 and it was going to become a network news bulletin only. But they had a change of heart and they kept me on.
"I did three days a week for a while and then the news went from half-hour to hour in the mid '90s and I went full-time again."
Despite all the changes in media over the past 45 years, there is only one thing Derm would re-edit.
"The only regret I've got is that, while we've got instant international news on satellites now, we're not as good at covering our own backyard any more," he says.
"We used to have little clips coming in from around Otago-Southland all the time. It was fantastic. I think local TV stations, like Channel 9 and Cue TV in Invercargill, do a marvellous job, but they don't operate much beyond the boundaries of Dunedin and Invercargill. When I think back, we had almost 25 years of a nightly TV bulletin that showed what was happening in Otago-Southland.
"That's why I think the ODT is so marvellous. It's better than any newspaper in the country at covering the regions. You have the regions nailed down."
Derm, typically, puts his longevity down to good luck, rather than good management.
"People have made a bit of a fuss this week, but the only thing I've really done different is I lasted so long, which is very unusual for television, especially with one organisation. I've always just been in the right place at the right time, somehow," he says.
"I've been very lucky to work in this area and there will definitely be some sadness [at going]. I'll miss the adrenalin rush and the guys I've worked with. They're a very small team in Dunedin, but a hugely experienced team, and they've been great people to work with.
"I've worked with [TVNZ cameraman] Ross Wilson virtually every day for 20 years. We're like an old married couple."
A farewell function was to be held for Derm at Forsyth Barr Stadium yesterday.
However, the old hack still has one or two assignments left.
"I'm a very average golfer. A very average golfer. But I love it and would like to get a little bit better. I'm also in the City of Dunedin Choir and we're doing The Messiah in the Regent Theatre on December 13," he said.
"And we bought a campervan a few months ago, so we're planning a trip up to Nelson over Christmas. It's going to be nice to have more time with Margaret."
