Nikki Kaye. Photo / Chris Skelton

Nikki Kaye. Photo / Chris Skelton

The way Nikki Kaye, National's candidate for Auckland Central sees it, the seat she's gunning for will be a "battleground".

Kaye is under no illusion that taking on Labour's Judith Tizard will be easy. But neither will she be.

"I do believe this is a battleground seat. There is an opportunity for a bit of excitement."

It's an electorate of highly educated young adults living in expensive houses. Suburbs like Herne Bay, St Marys Bay, Ponsonby, Grey Lynn and Westmere spell money. But Auckland Central has always been a Labour stronghold, although Kaye and her backers argue it is less so now. Last year's boundary changes, dropping Pt Chevalier and taking in part of Arch Hill, favour National, they say.

And last election the Greens - through the colourful Nandor Tanczos - picked up 5300 votes. This year he's not standing. Some commentators question whether Tizard, whose performance as Minister for Auckland has often been criticised, will scoop up those votes.

What does Tizard think? We're unsure. The minister declined to be interviewed by phone, her press secretary saying she would agree only to a sit-down discussion.

Kaye knows she's in for a fight. If anyone thinks the slight blonde sipping a skinny latte in Auckland's Chancery won't last the first round, the 28-year-old argues otherwise. As if to make her point, she tells a spine-chilling story of being trapped upside down in a kayak while training for this year's Coast to Coast marathon in February.

Fresh back from London, Kaye decided to take on the gruelling 3km beach run, 70km of cycling, a 33km mountain run/climb and a 67km kayak. Without much cycling experience, and none at kayaking, she had to train hard. Two weeks before the event, she found herself trapped upside down by her spray skirt in the raging Waimakariri River in the South Island. An instructor went back up river and rescued her but she was badly shaken.

If ever there was a moment Kaye might pull out of the race, that was it. It never crossed her mind. The only concession she made was to enter the two-day marathon, rather than attempt to do it in one day with the top guns. The next time she got in a kayak was on the second day of the race, facing 67km of water - seven hours paddling for a 20 hour, 20 minute finishing time. "I knew I'd finish that race."

NOW KAYE'S turning that focus and grit to campaigning for the Auckland Central seat. That she's standing for National is no surprise, given her pedigree; raised in the blue-blood suburbs of Epsom and Kohimarama, educated at Victoria Ave primary school - where people buy gracious homes on the correct side of the street to be in zone - Remuera Intermediate and Corran School, a private school in Remuera where she was head girl.

It wasn't all privilege, she insists. There were holiday jobs cleaning toilets at Auckland Hospital and her parents, Julia and Peter, split when she was six. Her extended family includes a brother and sister, a step-brother, six half- brothers and sisters (from her father's marriages) and two step parents.