Gower grew up in New Plymouth where his father was a fitter and turner at a power station, and his mother was a doctor's receptionist.
[2] Gower started his journalism career working the graveyard shift (6pm–1:30am) at The New Zealand Herald,[2][5] later becoming one of the newspaper's two police reporters.
He has said that the transition involved a big change in reporting styles:I always said that in print it's like working with a scalpel, because you can really get into the nitty-gritty, and you can be really specialised and direct.
Despite controversy about political bias on social networking sites, Gower claims to be a non-voter on the grounds of impartiality, stating:[7]People ask all the time do I vote, and I just don't, because I like to be independent as possible.
Gower hosted the King's Birthday programming and filled in for Kathryn Ryan on RNZ National's "Nine to Noon" programme.
[10] On 18 August 2014, Gower appeared in a skit by the University of Auckland Law School’s comedy revue, presenting a live report for 3 News in the campus’s library.
[19][20] In July 2021, Gower broke the story on a leaked draft script of the controversial They Are Us movie, which was based on the Christchurch mosque shootings.
The proposed script was criticised by members of the New Zealand Muslim community as well as several politicians including National Party leader Simon Bridges, ACT Party David Seymour, and Deputy Prime Minister Winston Peters for its depiction of graphic violence, exploitation of the tragedy for commercial gain, and historical inaccuracies of the events relating to the mosque shootings.