Patrick Gower has opened up about how his alcohol addiction and the pressures of his role as Newshub's political editor combined during the 2017 election to create the "lowest point of [his] career".
Newshub's National Correspondent made the admission while filming Patrick Gower: On Booze, a documentary that aired on Tuesday night about New Zealand's relationship with binge drinking.
While in his previous documentaries covering cannabis and meth (in On Weed and On P respectively) he's been able to maintain some journalistic distance, this time it got personal as he investigated his own problematic connection to alcohol.
During a frank conversation with his friend and former reporting rival, ex-TVNZ political editor Corin Dann, Gower opened up on the binge drinking session that led to him missing a scheduled TV interview the next morning.
"There were a few times I was a bit worried about you," Dann told Gower. "There was one morning where you didn't make it in for something and I'd never seen that before. That was the only time I thought 'shit, I hope he's alright'."
"Yeah," Gower replied. "I remember that and it was the lowest point in my career. I know the night you're talking about, I know it well."
Gower explained the incident happened while he'd been covering New Zealand First leader Winston Peters' decision to side with Labour after the 2017 election - a seismic moment in modern political history that forced National out of Government and made Jacinda Ardern Prime Minister.
"It was a massive night and it would've been one or two in the morning, a guy walked past and said, 'hey Winston Peters is drinking at a bar on Courtenay Place'," he recalled.
"I got up there and there was a semi-standoff; Peters saw me and said 'no, no, let him in'. I sat down with Peters and we hit the whiskeys - and I don't really remember anything else."
The following morning, Gower had a slot on the AM Show just after 7am to discuss what had gone on the night before.
But he never made it in for the interview.
"Paddy Gower's missing - I hope he's in the safe zone on Courtenay Place. Someone call the cops," AM Show host Duncan Garner joked, when he realised Gower was a no-show.
Gower explains he'd just slept in.
"I had never, ever missed my slot," Gower says.
"People were like 'is he OK?' - and the truth is I'd just gone out and got absolutely tanked. The stress of work had got on top and actually I couldn't handle the job or the alcohol or anything."
Gower described his commitment to alcohol at that time as "ferocious", and Dann admitted other political reporters had raised concerns over how much he was drinking.
"You weren't OK at that point, and that's why I was worried. And others in the [parliamentary press] gallery who were very fond of you were worried as well. We would talk to each other that we were worried about you.
"But we never talked to you about the booze or rang you up, and that's problematic."
Watch the full Patrick Gower: On Booze documentary on-demand at ThreeNow. And the conversation around booze continues when Gower hosts Newshub Talks Booze live at 8:30pm Wednesday on Three and ThreeNow.