Phil Goff's election day starts on the farm

While Goff is winding down, his main rival Vic Crone has been going all out to increase her vote. Photo / Dean Purcell

Auckland election results likely this afternoon after shrinking vote turnout.

Phil Goff's alarm clock will ring at 6am today. He will get up, put on gumboots and feed out baleage to the steers at his 8ha farmlet in Clevedon. And check for any late lambs.

After cleaning the car and changing into a suit, the long-serving Labour MP will drive to a function for supporters at a bar in the central city. Sometime around 2 o'clock he will receive a phone call, hopefully telling him he is the new mayor of the Super City.

Last night, Goff, who has a legendary work ethic, had a rare night in at home. It followed another busy day; a final address to Ellerslie Rotary and a funeral for the brother of a close political friend Shale Chambers, who chairs the Waitemata Local Board.

Before sitting down at home to watch a movie chosen by his wife, Mary, Goff planned to drop by a rest home in Manurewa to see his dad Bruce, a 95-year-old war veteran. His children Kris, Kieran and Sara were invited round for the family get-together and a glass of pinot noir. Goff has a special bottle of Mt Difficulty pinot noir reserved for tonight, should he win.

The hard work has been done, Goff told the Weekend Herald yesterday. He not only wants to win but win big to have a strong mandate from the people of Auckland.

"I'm now waiting on the decision of the electorate."

While Goff is winding down, his main rival Vic Crone has been going all out to increase her vote.

"We are absolutely fighting this to the end," she says.

"The feeling and support on the ground is amazing and I think people will be very surprised with the result," says the businesswoman who chucked in a big job with accounting software firm Xero to run for the mayoralty.

"I've been out every day on the streets and at the shopping centres, knocking on doors, waving placards, and whacking up signs - all out in the elements with my team. I think that says a lot about the kind of mayor I'll be for Auckland and how much I really want this."​

In the past day or so, Crone has been driving a truck and getting her hands dirty taking down her "Vic for Mayor" hoardings across the city.

This morning she plans a little bit of last-minute campaigning and the rest of the day with family and supporters.

Her election function is not far from the Goff bash - and just round the corner from the home of David Lewis, the mastermind behind Goff and Len Brown's two election victories. Lewis won't be at his usual watering hole.