Chris Hipkins has emerged from his COVID-19 isolation, saying the virus hasn't blunted his energy heading into the final week of the New Zealand election campaign.
With election day fast approaching on October 14, the New Zealand prime minister was hamstrung by COVID-19, isolating at Auckland's Cordis Hotel for the past five days.
"I think I've eaten pretty much everything on the Cordis menu so I'm looking forward to getting home tonight," he told journalists in the hotel lobby as he checked out on Friday morning.
Mr Hipkins enthusiastically posted a picture of a negative rapid antigen test to his social media accounts.
"Isolation over!" he said.
"Can't wait to get back into it!"
After leaving Auckland, the Labour leader jumped on a flight to Wellington and joined the party's Rongotai candidate Fleur Fitzsimons to wave Labour signs alongside State Highway 1.
He then visited the capital's northern suburbs, dropping into shops in the Cobham Court mall, eating baklava, posing for a few fan selfies and joining in a TikTok dance at Porirua Partners.
From there it was off to Upper Hutt in his home electorate of Remutaka to drive laps in a go-kart.
How better to finish the day than with a local beer - a Boneface Lithium American Pilsner - at Brewtorn, where he had time to say hello to a bucks party.
"It's good to be back," Mr Hipkins said.
Isolating is no longer a requirement in New Zealand, which ditched all COVID-related regulations earlier in the year, but Mr Hipkins chose to do so to demonstrate best practice.
"It knocked me around quite a bit the first few days ... but I've been on the mend for a couple of days now," he said.
The former COVID-19 minister said he "absolutely" had enough in the tank for the final few days, noting the irony of the virus coming back to haunt him as he campaigns for office.
"Well COVID-19 disrupted everything over the last three years so I think there's a certain sort of irony in it disrupting the last couple of weeks of the election campaign as well," he said.
Polls show Labour faces a tough road to a third term, with the latest TVNZ-Verian survey showing it on 26 per cent, behind National on 36.
As a whole, the left bloc has 41 per cent support, with the right bloc - of National, ACT and NZ First - on 52 per cent.
Another pollster, from the National-aligned Curia, released on Friday, put National on 36 and Labour on 28, with the left and right bloc on similar figures to TVNZ.
Mr Hipkins said it was a close campaign to be decided by those yet to make up their minds.
"There's a lot of undecided voters going out in the electorate - even the pollsters will tell you that," he said.
"It could be up to 10 to 15 per cent of people haven't made up their minds how they're going to vote and that's enough to completely change the outcome of the election.
"The last few days of the election campaign really matters."
Opposition Leader Chris Luxon spent Friday campaigning in New Plymouth and Stratford in the Taranaki region.
He pledged to fast-track consenting for offshore wind projects that could boost New Zealand's renewable energy generation, a key National party promise.
