If you think you're frustrated by the coalition negotiation saga which Winston Peters is subjecting the nation to, maybe spare a thought for the journalists camped outside the lifts at Bowen House, Wellington, for hour after monotonous hour.
1 NEWS political reporter Andrea Vance gave a brief insight into how the dozens of journos are passing the time, and it ain't glamorous.
Junk food, books, and general complaining seem to be the preferred pastimes.
"As you pan around you can see the gaggle of journalists waiting. As you say it was day 11 of what we call a stakeout," Vance said during a live cross to 1 NEWS' Midday show.
"I'm on my third book, there's a lot of complaining going on, a lot of eating of very unhealthy snacks, we've had a few deliveries of biscuits, sausage rolls some nuts, people are just spending the time on Twitter and Instagram and endlessly speculating as to what’s going on upstairs and elsewhere in the building."
And Mr Peter's own unique habits of engaging with the media don't make it any easier, Vance said.
"Look I know that sounds really frivolous but there is a serious reason for us being here and that's because Winston Peters does not give notice," she said.
"He doesn't hold press conferences perhaps like other party leaders and he doesn't tell us, he just simply appears.
"Those lift doors will open with no notice and he will step out and he will begin updating us on the latest developments, so we really have to be here to keep the public informed as to what’s happening and what’s going to happen next in this quite complex and involved process."
Those much filmed lifts over the past 11 days are in the lobby of Bowen House which is a 22-storey office building in Wellington that has been leased by Parliamentary Services since 1991.
It is connected to the rest of the parliamentary complex, including The Beehive, by a tunnel under Bowen Street.
New Zealand First's meetings are being conducted on the 13th floor.
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