NZ Election 2020: Tired Clarke Gayford can't wait for election campaign to be over

Sick of the extended election campaign? You're in good company.

Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern and her partner - TV host Clarke Gayford - are looking forward to Sunday just as much as anyone. 

The couple appeared on The AM Show on Friday - the final day of campaigning, almost a month after the election was originally scheduled to be held.

"Hanging in there," Gayford told host Duncan Garner. 

"We've actually only had two days on the campaign trail together - this is one of them," said Ardern, "so we thought we'd spend the last day together."

Asked if he was looking forward to having the country's preferred Prime Minister back at home, Gayford wearily answered, "Yeah, absolutely." 

"Once more, with a little more conviction," Ardern urged. "It's an early start, I'll forgive you for that."

Gayford confirmed he's had many early starts lately - and not just because they've got a two-year-old to look after.

"I feel like I have been a part of it because I'm there when the alarm goes off every morning. 'Oop, here we go again.'" 

Ardern said the long campaign could perhaps explain the record number of early votes - 1.5 million Kiwis have already cast their ballots.

"I think that's why advance voting might be so good - everyone's just thinking, 'If I go and vote, will it end now?'"

Jacinda Ardern.
Jacinda Ardern. Photo credit: The AM Show

Campaigning ends Friday night, and is banned on Saturday. Ardern's plans for the day include whipping up some scones, thanking volunteers and watching the results come in from 7pm on TV at home.

As for Sunday, it depends on whether Labour are in a position to form the next Government. If Labour wins, she'll still be Prime Minister. If they lose, she'll quit Parliament.

"You know there's a certain inevitability if you don't succeed that it's time to go. I would take my cue from voters - if they say it's time to go, it's time to go. I have no other plan."

She has no idea what she'll do next.

"A lot of people speculate - I've never had a plan beyond what I'm doing right now. There's no plan B."  

Victoria University politics lecturer Bryce Edwards doesn't think she'll have to worry about finding a new career.

"The left - when you add Labour and Greens together... they're headed for a landslide victory."

Her opponent, National leader Judith Collins, might have to dust off the CV, however. Collins has said she has no intentions of quitting should National lose. 

Dr Edwards told Newshub she knows "in her heart" National has lost, and keeping her job depends just how badly they lose. 

"If she's been able to get it up to 35 percent, then I think her own colleagues and her own party members will appreciate that and want to keep her on.

"If it falls below 30 percent, then I think it will be judged a significant failure and she'll be out of her job quite quickly. Somewhere between those two amounts, will be a bit more ambiguous." 

Collins once set her own failure threshold at 35 percent. 

Tune in on Three and Newshub.co.nz from 7pm on Saturday for Newshub's Decision 2020 election special.