Election diary: On the buses with Key and Cunliffe

Labour Party leader David Cunliffe is grabbed by Vilma Brooking during his visit to Wesleyhaven Retirement Village in Lower Hutt. Photo / Mark Mitchell

6PM - KEY BUS: The Team Key campaign bus has arrived at its final destination, Soljan's Winery in Kumeu, which is within John Key's Helensville electorate. It is his traditional spot for a campaign closing party, having finished his past two election runs there.

He can't have a tipple just yet, as he has sworn off alcohol until tomorrow night.
In the campaign closing speeches, deputy Prime Minister Bill English thanked Mr Key and Kim Dotcom - "the two people who have done more than most to get National over the line".

Mr English suggested Mr Key was still a little nervous. Sitting next to him on the bus from Hamilton to Auckland, the Prime Minister had checked the polls 15 times, working out the average.

In his speech, Mr Key said the campaign had been like no other he had ever competed in. He said it had been difficult "to get out from under the stories that had been running".
He made one last, brief summary of National's achievements - a growing economy, low migration numbers, low crime. Mr Key warned: "It adds up to nothing if tomorrow night there's a Labour-Greens-New Zealand First government."

Earlier this week, Mr Key made a plea for voters not to split their vote or "second-guess the MMP system". National is steak, and the others are lamb chops, he said.

With his final words in his second term as Prime Minister, he returned to that metaphor.
"Tomorrow night is the night for steak. Deliver me a huge t-bone and I'll be a very, very happy boy."

3.50pm - CUNLIFFE BUS:

Labour leader David Cunliffe will campaign to the last possible moment tonight, but will not go to the polling booths to vote tomorrow because he has already cast his vote.

Instead Mr Cunliffe plans to have a sleep-in and spend some time at his son's sports day.

While his rival National leader John Key will do his traditional visit with wife Bronagh to a Parnell booth in the morning to vote, Mr Cunliffe cast his vote early on in the campaign in a bid to try and encourage others to cast early ballots.

He said he would get a sleep-in for the first time in a long time. The Electoral Commission had advised he could not visit his campaign teams but he did hope to watch his son play sport.

There is a strict no-campaigning rule on Election Day and parties must have their billboards, hoardings and other election advertising down by midnight.

Mr Cunliffe said the highlight of his first campaign as Labour leader was "meeting New Zealanders."

"It's been a real privilege and people have shared their stories, hopes and dreams. And they've shared their struggling. It's very humbling and it also strengthens my determination as an incoming Prime Minister to say 'we are on their side, and we are going to do our damnedest to help them out."

He has focussed on safe Labour territory over the past few days in west and south Auckland, aiming to encourage voter turnout - part of Labour's strategy has been to get the 800,000 voters who did not vote in 2011 to do so.

Photo / Claire Trevettt

That strategy also appeared to buoy Mr Cunliffe because it ensured warm, raucous welcomes.

Labour has struggled to get traction in the campaign because of other issues such as Kim Dotcom and Dirty Politics overshadowing it.

He will wrap up his campaign at midnight in traditional Labour style: visiting night shift workers after going to night markets in Papatoetoe.

That will bring to an end a long six week campaign for Mr Cunliffe. That was longer than the usual four week campaign and Mr Cunliffe said the decision to kick it off a fortnight early had paid off in advance votes.

2.20pm - CUNLIFFE BUS:

Labour leader David Cunliffe is heading into South Auckland for the afternoon after spending a couple of hours in his New Lynn electorate.

While his rival John Key was faced with protestors in Rotorua, Cunliffe was sticking to safe ground - New Lynn is one place he is guaranteed a warm welcome and where Labour tops the usually dreaded bean polls.

Mr Cunliffe was greeted with hugs by several shoppers in Lynn Mall, just down from his office in the safe Cunliffe electorate.

He introduced his entourage to Billie, the head of the Waitakere Wardens and did a rather confused coalition maths lesson with a man who had asked about NZ First and the Green Party.

"Those are the three," Mr Cunliffe explained. "So one plus two plus three equals a government."

The man did appear rather optimistic about Labour's chances - his advice to Mr Cunliffe was "don't try to go alone."

Mr Cunliffe and the bus are now on the way to Manukau - to music including The Final Countdown and We are the Champions.

2pm - KEY BUS:

Prime Minister John Key posing for a photos with supporters during his visit to the Rotorua Central Mall. Photo / Mark Mitchell

The National Party bus made a quick stop in Cambridge. Unlike the fierce challenge Mr Key faced in Rotorua, the Prime Minister was met with spontaneous applause when walked onto the town square.

With the election campaign now in its twilight hours, Mr Key reflected on the last six weeks.

At a media conference in Cambridge, he said he did not believe this was his hardest campaign. It was more difficult fighting for an election as a "fresh-faced" Opposition leader in 2008.

"There's always a white heat in the campaign, and I think you get better at dealing with those issues. But they're all tough."

Proving he had not yet run out of rugby analogies, Mr Key reiterated that the election result could still be close: "We all sat around watching the All Blacks thrash France in the opening games of the 2011 World Cup, but come the final, the [All Blacks] only won 8-7."

He regretted that the campaign had been overshadowed by "distractions" such as the Dirty Politics book and spying allegations.

In his previous election bids, the campaign had been about the Prime Minister versus the Leader of the Opposition. "This hasn't really felt like an election campaign where it's been me versus David Cunliffe."

He added: "But you can't re-write history. You can't rewind the DVD and go back to six weeks ago. We're now a number of hours away from the formal start of the voting process."

He said voters in future elections would want the focus to return to the "arm-wrestle" between two big parties and minor players.

The discussion then turned to more serious matters, such as who would win an actual arm wrestle between Mr Key and Mr Cunliffe.

Mr Key paused. "He's substantially bigger than me," he said.

He went on: "I'm not calling him Pop-Eye, I'm just saying he looks a bit bigger than me.

"I'm definitely claiming underdog status."

11.00am - KEY BUS:

Internet-Mana supporters get among their National counterparts in Rotorua. Photo / Mark Mitchell

John Key's day got off to a tense start at Rotorua's Central Mall as his walkabout was hijacked by angry Mana protesters.

Mr Key, Minister Steven Joyce and local MP Todd McClay had been taking photographs with locals for around half an hour before the group turned up, waving flags and becoming increasingly vocal.

Mr Key continued smiling as the black and red-clad Mana crowd surrounded the National Party entourage, but he ended up cutting the visit short as the atmosphere became increasingly unsettled.

He scuttled out of the mall with support from police, mall security and Diplomatic Protection Services.

Much of the protesters' anger appeared to stem from the Tuhoe raids, which took place within the electorate.

"You're on stolen land," one woman yelled repeatedly.

"Liars, liars", chanted another group of young women.

Police evicted one person from the mall during Mr Key's visit, though he did not appear to be affiliated with the Mana Party.

"It was the same the last time I was here," Mr Key said.

The next stop, Cambridge, is likely to be less heated.

10.27am - CUNLIFFE BUS: Labour leader David Cunliffe said it was "strange" that National was encouraging its voters in Te Tai Tokerau to vote for a Labour candidate Kelvin Davis but he was happy to take votes wherever they came from.

"I think Kelvin's the man to win that seat and as Kelvin said, he wants every single vote no matter where it comes from."

NZ First leader Winston Peters and National leader John Key have both urged their voters in Te Tai Tokerau to vote for Mr Davis over Mana leader Hone Harawira in a clear attempt to block the Internet Party from Parliament. Neither party are standing candidates in the Maori electorates themselves.

Mr Cunliffe said Mr Key's stance was "strange" and suggested he support some National candidates in other seats.

"I think it's time he promoted the National Party candidate in Epsom."

Mr Harawira has said the other parties were ganging up on him.

Mr Cunliffe has repeatedly said Labour was not doing a deal to try to ensure Mr Harawira held the seat and could be a support option for Labour. However, early in the campaign, Mr Davis had been told not to go on the attack over the Internet Mana Party because of Labour's 'Vote Positive' message and because the Internet Mana Party were on the left of politics.

This morning Mr Cunliffe would not go so far as to say he would like to see Internet Mana driven out of politics altogether. "Let me just say I think if you're in Te Tai Tokerau, vote for Kelvin Davis and vote for Labour. Unlike John Key, I'm promoting Labour candidates in every seat around the country. If John Key wants to do tricky deals that's up to him."

He had spoken to Mr Davis about Mr Peters' endorsement of him in Whangarei yesterday and said it was a spur of the moment thing.

Mr Davis had told him he had bumped into Mr Peters by coincidence. "[Davis] said Winston just grabbed the loudhailer and said 'Kelvin's the man for Te Tai Tokerau.'

10.15am - CUNLIFFE BUS: Labour leader David Cunliffe said if former Customs' lawyer Curtis Gregorash's claims were true, it would be "completely improper" but would confirm anecdotal reports Labour had heard of similar instances.

"That's why we are committed to a full review of the operations in ministerial offices. We want to make sure there's no abuse of power - the kind of thing we saw in the Minister of Justice's office."

Mr Cunliffe noted that the Ombudsman had had to intervene in just the last week to force the Prime Ministers Office to reveal the name of the staffer who former SIS Director Warren Tucker had briefed on plans to release information to Whaleoil blogger Cam Slater. That staffer was Mr Key's former deputy chief of staff Phil de Joux.

10am - CUNLIFFE BUS: Labour leader David Cunliffe told some voters on Queen Street that if he just had another three days, Labour would be a certainty to win.

Asked by media later whether that meant he did not believe he could win it in the next day, Mr Cunliffe said he thought it would be very close and gave himself a 50-50 chance.

"I think we will win, but I think it would be pretty certain... the polls are closing up."

Nor was he wasting any of that final day. The early bird catches the worm - or in Mr Cunliffe's case, the commuter.

His final day began on North Shore at the transport hub, before the Labour Bus took advantage of the busway to catch the commuters at the other end - Britomart.

He stood outside the doors of the train station bailing almost every voter who came along up.

"Don't worry," he said to one shy-looking commuter. "It's just me and 400 cameras."

A homeless man also approached him for assistance, saying he was waiting for a state house. "Three years under a bridge is a long time." Mr Cunliffe told his advisors to take the man's details to follow it up later.

Every person who said they were voting for him or had already was given a loud cheer by the supporters following him.

There were as many slogans as handshakes. "This is going to be a knife edge election. There is a momentum for change, a mood on the ground, it's a race against time. The people get to have the final say."

He said he'd enjoyed the campaign and would not list any regrets, but said he had learned from the experience."