With 1 NEWS looking back at the last 50 years of network news, it's important to recognise the impact and significance that the Pacific has on New Zealand.
Having been with TVNZ and 1 NEWS since 2002, Pacific correspondent Barbara Dreaver has long been a voice for those who can't tell their own stories.
"The Pacific has a great impact on New Zealand," she says. "What happens out there will impact on New Zealand.
"We have a huge Pacific community here in New Zealand and it is growing. Whatever happens here in the Pacific community affects wider New Zealand.
"It's been my pride and privilege to give Pacific people a voice, and I think we have made a huge difference."
The importance of journalism in the Pacific remains strong, with 1 NEWS helping uncover stories such as the Samoan adoption scandal of 2009, as well as the Kiribati flight school in 2006.
"You have to be very brave to be the Pacific correspondent. I'm not just going out there to cover event driven stories like funerals or cyclones.
"A lot of the investigating I do, people would prefer that I didn't. My job is to challenge and to expose.
"When you keep things hidden, that's when things don't change.
"I don't go out there to cover turtle stories, I'm out there doing the hard yards and it's not easy."
The relationship between New Zealand and our Pacific neighbours is a vital part of our geo-political standing, Barbara adds.
"New Zealand needs the Pacific. We didn't get on the [UN] security council on our own, we got there because we had the votes of the Pacific countries.
"New Zealand calls on its neighbours for assistance, we're quite isolated on the world stage. When we're with the Pacific countries, we're a very strong body."
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