Jacinda Ardern dons a face mask as New Zealand’s ex-prime minister makes Covid-safe preparations for her wedding to TV fisherman Clarke Gayford at a luxury nail salon with her mum and friends – after the hen do

Jacinda Ardern’s wedding preparations have officially kicked off in a predictably Covid-safe manner.

The former New Zealand Prime Minister spent Friday morning preparing and ironing out her highly anticipated wedding to TV fisherman fiancee Clarke Gayford at Craggy Range Winery tomorrow.

Jacinda, 43, was joined by her mother Laurrell Ardern and friends at Sen Nails & Beauty in the heart of Havelock North, in Hawke’s Bay on the east coast of New Zealand’s North Island.

She did her best to disguise herself during her manicure – she wore a straw hat and a surgical face mask.

“Jacinda and her mother were the only two people in the entire salon wearing masks,” said a witness who saw the couple.

“It’s clear the pandemic isn’t over for the queen of lockdowns.”

Dressed in a casual black flowing dress, Ardern was later spied being escorted to a back exit from the salon before making a mad dash to a waiting vehicle.

On Wednesday, Ardern reportedly held her bachelorette party with a dozen girlfriends at nearby Hastings Distillers, a boutique bar known for its “organic, artisanal spirits and liqueurs.”

The former Labor Party leader will tie the knot on Saturday at the $25,000-a-night venue.

She was forced to postpone her 2022 wedding as her government introduced Covid-19 restrictions, reducing the size of gatherings to 100.

In a bizarre twist, Ardern’s long-time friend and fellow Labor Party MP Kieran McAnulty has also booked this weekend to marry his fiancée Gia Garrick, former press secretary to Prime Ministers Ardern and Chris Hipkins.

According to a source, many mutual friends have since accepted invitations to Ardern and Mr Clarke’s big day, despite McAnulty having set the date of his wedding months in advance.

Mr McAnulty and Mrs Garrick will say on Saturday that I will do so at the Orua Sea Grotto overlooking Hot Water Beach in The Coromandel.

Ardern, 42, has long been a fan of the Craggy Range Winery.

In 2020, she was pictured alongside the team of Michelin-starred chefs at the winery’s Two Hats restaurant.

“Honoured that Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern had dinner with us last night,” the audience said in a photo caption.

‘Thank you for coming and supporting Hawke’s Bay!’

The globally renowned winery is nestled between the beautiful Te ​​Mata Peak and the Tukituki River and was named the world’s most Instagrammable vineyard in 2021.

The picturesque location offers on-site accommodation for up to 30 guests which must be booked for hosting weddings.

Nestled among vineyards, Craggy Range offers an impressive wedding package for couples, including an intimate sit-down function in the winery’s restaurant for 70 people.

Alternatively, they offer a marquee for large events, with a minimum spend of $25,000.

Ardern, 43, and Mr Gayford, 47, first met at an awards ceremony in 2012 but did not start dating until 2014 when Mr Gayford contacted the then Labor politician about proposed legislation in 2013.

Before dating Ardern, Mr Gayford was famous in New Zealand, with various roles in the media as a radio host, DJ and broadcaster.

Mr. Gayford is the current host of “Fish of the Day,” a series dedicated to Pacific fishing, and “Moving Houses,” a show that revolves around the process of moving houses.

The couple share a daughter together, Neve, who was born in 2018 while Ardern was in office.

New Zealand was swept up in ‘Jacidamania’ when Ms Adern was elected Prime Minister in October 20117 – the world’s youngest leader was regularly harassed for selfies wherever she went.

Two years later, the country was rocked by the worst terrorist attack it had ever seen, when a white supremacist gunman stormed two mosques in Christchurch, killing 51 people.

Ardern won praise around the world for her response, donning a hijab to meet survivors and relatives of victims and tightening New Zealand’s gun laws.

She won global admiration for her response to Covid – summed up by her mantra ‘go hard and go early’ – when she closed New Zealand’s borders after just a hundred cases.

It meant that seven weeks later the country was able to achieve a level of freedom that was the envy of other countries around the world and also helped deliver a landslide victory for the Labor Party in October 2020.

But her decision to implement repeated lockdowns in the second half of the pandemic was widely seen to have hurt small business owners and hurt the Kiwi economy.

Her push for more progressive reforms, in the areas of water, the health care system, resource management and Maori rights, has provoked wave after wave of domestic opposition in recent years.

By the time she announced her shock resignation last January, her popularity had plummeted.

After her resignation, she claimed that she “no longer had enough left in the tank” after her five-year term.

She then made light of the wedding debacle and gave a special shout-out to her partner in the speech, telling him, “And to Clarke, let’s finally get married.”

‘I am a human. Politicians are people. We give everything we can, while we can – and then it’s time. And for me it’s time. I know what this job costs,” she said at the time.