Opinion by Erna Mcreynolds
Reporting in fear from a foreign land

Working as the only woman reporter at the morning paper in the capitol of New Zealand in the ’70s offered lots of challenges. I made a lot of my own excitement, too, by tackling stories that
brought me to some places like a revue bar run by a transvestite in an era when this was illegal. Scary for a girl from Upstate New York who had never heard anything about that kind of club — or been inside a venue like that.

What if I didn’t go? Figure out how to ask the right questions? What if I didn’t come back with a story — and a good one? What was worse than going into a dank, beer-smelling smoke-filled room with some worn-out performers on a stage? Not getting the story and the right story. I had to get a crash course in the real world.