Security has been beefed up at a Hawke’s Bay vineyard for the wedding rehearsal of Dame Jacinda Ardern and Clarke Gayford.
Family and friends have today gathered and been transported in buggies to the venue.
The former prime minister and her husband-to-be were photographed walking through the vineyard today on the eve of tying the knot.
Barbara Ward, Ardern’s close friend and wedding planner, was also seen walking with the couple’s child, Neve, who is believed to be part of the bridal party.
A wine connoisseur told the Herald about 100 guests were invited.
The minimum cost for a wedding at the luxury winery was $20,000, he said.
Food for the wedding breakfast was similar to the venue’s summer menu.
Family and friends are understood to be staying in boutique cottages behind the restaurant.
Ardern, 43, and her TV presenter fiance Gayford, 47, will wed tomorrow.
The invite list is set to feature many of Ardern’s former colleagues in the now-opposition Labour Party, including party leader and fellow former PM Chris Hipkins.
Ardern and Gayford began dating in 2014 after Gayford, a marine enthusiast and host of Fish of the Day and Moving Houses, contacted the then-Labour list MP about proposed legislation in 2013.
Gayford popped the question five years later with his grandmother’s ring on Mokotahi Hill in northern Hawke’s Bay, as Diplomatic Protection Service officers kept watch nearby and a local dog tried to eat the chocolate he’d packed for the occasion.
The cliff-top proposal came 10 months after the birth of the couple’s daughter Neve and 18 months after Ardern became the country’s second-youngest prime minister when the then-Labour Party leader formed a coalition with Peters’-helmed NZ First.
They’d made no plans “at all” for the wedding, Ardern told media after news of the engagement broke almost two weeks after the Easter proposal, when a ring was spotted on her finger during a ceremony at Pike River.
“I have absolutely no idea”, she said, when asked when the wedding would be.
Less than a year later the Covid-19 pandemic kicked off a round of restrictions that included lockdowns, border closures to those without citizenship or residency, and an at-times oversubscribed managed quarantine system for Kiwis coming home.
The couple’s wedding would eventually be booked for the 2022 summer, the venue understood to be the farm homestead at Nick’s Head Station, 25km south of Gisborne.
The luxury rural estate, at which Grammy Award-winner Lorde was also understood to be on hand to entertain the couple’s loved ones and friends, is owned by US hedge fund billionaire John Griffin and his wife Amy.
But the arrival of the Omicron variant in late January 2022 and subsequent move to the red traffic light system - which restricted gatherings to fewer than 100 - spoiled the pair’s plans.
“Such is life”, Ardern said of their decision to call off the wedding.
“I am no different to, dare I say, thousands of other New Zealanders.”
The three-time Mt Albert MP had previously described herself as “the least-engaged bride”, as Gayford was in charge of organising the nuptials, but vowed there were no plans to delay their vows indefinitely.
When she resigned as Prime Minister almost a year ago, citing exhaustion, the bride-to-be included a special message to Gayford alongside promises to try to find ways to “keep working for New Zealand” and take Neve to her first day of school.
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