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From 20 June to 28 August 2022, I (Mike Dickison, User:Giantflightlessbirds) was the West Coast Wikipedian at Large. The project was funded by Development West Coast and reflected the areas they wanted most to see improved—the "tourism icons" of Lake Brunner, Te Wahipounamu, Ōpārara Arches, and Punakaiki. This involved:

• Online training for new editors and Commons photographers (27 July, 4 August)
• Fortnightly volunteer "postcards"
• Weekly reports of uploads, edits, and improvements
• Two Wikiblitz sessions focussed on the reptiles of the West Coast
• On-site work, including research, interviews, collecting sources, and photography, at:
  • Punakaiki (27–28 June)
  • Moana (10–12 July)
  • Karamea (25–27 July, joined by two volunteers from Wellington)
  • Haast (8–10 Aug)

DWC did a great job publicising the work of this project, and it featured in print, on the radio, and three times on TV. Coverage included:

• Sherman, Janna. (5 July 2022). "'Wikipedian at Large' keen to shine light on the Coast." Hokitika Guardian. p 2.
• Equivalent stories in the Greymouth Star and Westport News
• "West Coast Wikipedian at Large 2". Development West Coast. 6 July 2022. Retrieved 17 July 2022.
• Mike Dickison (11 July 2022). West Coast Wikipedian at Large: Lake Brunner (Television interview). Newshub.
• Mike Dickison (12 July 2022). West Coast Wikipedian at Large 2 (Television interview). TVNZ Breakfast.
• Mike Dickison, Kararaina Te Ira (22 August 2022). The West Coast Renaissance: Hokitika Museum (Television interview). Seven Sharp.

Eleven volunteers signed up to assist with the project. All were working remotely, from Auckland, Golden Bay, Wellington, Dunedin, and Christchurch. Volunteers reported their achievements as part of the weekly summary, and data was collected by the Project Dashboard. Book prizes (donated by Westland District Library) were given out for best contributions. The prizewinners were:

• @Schwede66: for article and Wikidata creation, and organising mentions in Did You Know, including a video which received 400,000 views
• @Marshelec: for creation of numerous articles on waterfalls, tracks, and scenery
• @Turnagra: for article improvement, and creating a new page on the Copland Track

The team created 25 Wikipedia articles from scratch:

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  Ship Creek
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  Thunder Creek Falls
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  Ballroom Overhang
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  Cecil Kings Hut, Wangapeka Track
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  Karangarua RIver, Copland Track

Articles nominated for Did You Know appear on Wikipedia's home page for 12 hours, in which time they can get tens of thousands of views. DYKs for this project were:

• 23 June: Greymouth railway station (4,050 views)

• 25 July: Double nomination of Paparoa Track and Pororari River (1,749 and 1,266 views respectively; the short DOC video on the making of the Paparoa Track received over 405,000 views)
• 26 July: Copland Track (2,512 views)
• 4 August: Lake Brunner (11,494 views, one of the most viewed of August 2022)

The West Coast team made 974 edits to 193 articles, adding 73,800 words and 653 citations (more stats in the Outreach Dashboard).

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  Cave Creek
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  Westland petrel / tāiko
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  Keri Hulme
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  Gouland Downs on the Heaphy Track
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  Fishing on Lake Brunner

Wikidata is the database that underpins Wikipedia; it can keep track of cited references, minor geographical features, and notable topics that don't yet have Wikipedia articles. Items created for this project include:

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  Fourteen Mile Bluff
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  Monro Beach Walk
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  Te Tauraka Waka a Māui marae
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  St John's, Moana
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  Ross Chinese Garden

When multiple images are uploaded or compiled, they're sorted into categories in Wikimedia Commons. Some of the largest ones created for this project include:

1126 photos were uploaded as part of the project, including over 600 in the category Uploads by West Coast Wikipedian at Large. Here are a selection:

• Fenian Track
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  Powelliphanta
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  Prince-of-Wales Feather fern
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  South Island robin
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  Kiokio
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  Robust bracket fungus
• Cashmere Bay, Lake Brunner
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• Jack's Mill School and miniature bungalow, Kotuku
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• The Truman Track, Punakaiki
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Acting as a Wikipedian in Residence I uploaded photo collections on behalf of copyright holders, with their full consent; the benefits and consequences of an irrevocable open licence were explained to them. Contact them with any further enquiries about copyright status and licensing.

The West Coast Wikipedian at Large project was again funded by Development West Coast. I'd also like to recognise the hard work by volunteers all over New Zealand, and the generosity of photographers like Jase Blair agreeing to release their work under an open licence. Hokitika Museum kindly allowed a camera crew in to film me in their storage rooms. Numerous locals took the time to meet and chat, supplying information and publications, especially Dulcie McNabb, Hamish Macbeth, Cliff Meakin and the DOC offices in Haast, Karamea, and Punakaiki.

—Mike Dickison (User:Giantflightlessbirds), 29 August 2022