Reporter Ina Holst: “I’ll be sad to stop”
Ina Holst says that she will enjoy her free weekends with her family.
Ina Holst says that starting work as a reporter for the GB Weekly ten years ago was “quite a blessing”.
“I moved here with my family [husband Hans Stoffregen and sons Timo and Fabien] in 1998. I was finishing my thesis for an MA in applied environmental studies at the Victoria University of Wellington. It was called “Biodiversity: Who cares?” and dealt with community involvement in the development of a biodiversity strategy.
“We lived at Tukurua until about 2000, and at first I had to really knuckle down to finish the thesis. With two young sons, I had no time to be drinking coffee in town or getting out and meeting people, so for the first few years I felt quite isolated in the Bay. I’d left behind my social networks in Wellington, so Golden Bay was very different.
“When I finished my thesis and graduated, I needed a job that kept my brain occupied. The reporting job at the Weekly was perfect. The hours could be fitted around my family life, and it allowed me to meet so many interesting people.”
Ina chose to write under her maiden name of Holst to maintain her independence from husband Hans’s connections with the Department of Conservation.
“I wanted to be able to write without people assuming things. That’s what the job requires – to put aside your personal judgements and build up a rapport with a wide range of people. You have to really get a feel for them. Everyone has a story to tell. I’ve loved the job for that, – hearing people’s often very personal stories and then telling, some of it at least, back to the readers.”
Ina remembers the first story she wrote as an audition for the Weekly. She interviewed Kathy Reilly about an exhibition held at the Golden Bay Gallery.
“I’d had no training as a journalist. All my writing in English had been academic writing. It’s a totally different kind of voice. I remember talking to Kathy for about three hours and then spending just about a whole day writing the story, but I really wanted to get it right. Once I got started in the job, I realised that I had to get stories done more quickly, but I worked very hard on that first story.”
In 2008 Ina was employed part-time by the Tasman District Council to work alongside Laurie Davidson as a consents planner, and as her hours have now increased, she has finally decided to pull back from writing for The GB Weekly.
“I’ll be sad to stop. The GB Weekly is an important community tool. It should be looking carefully at the forces that work here – the environmental and social issues, and the local body politics. It should present a balanced view of the issues with careful research, especially where governments don’t do their homework. I’m a researcher at heart. I’ve enjoyed the challenge of putting myself and my views out of the picture and presenting both sides of the story without too much bias and preconceived ideas.
“I’ve also really enjoyed talking to a lot of the artists in the Bay. In the meantime, I will enjoy my free weekends with my family and the many friends I made over the years, and looking after the farm.”
Ina says she will be looking forward to seeing the Weekly tackling the hard issues, such as the environment and what she calls “the political agenda”.
Neil Wilson
