Resigned New Zealand Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern bid her people a warm farewell on her last day as prime minister, and spoke of the kindness and sympathy shown to her by New Zealanders, but said she was ready to be a sister and a mother.
Ardern, 42, arrived on Tuesday at a gathering of politicians and Maori elders in the small town of Ratana, north of the capital Wellington, and her supporters immediately surrounded her, seeking to take pictures with her.
This came days after her announcement - which shocked the world - that she "no longer had the energy" to lead the country, and that she would step down.
"Thank you from the bottom of my heart for the greatest honor of my life," she said in a speech to the gathering.
Ardern will resign Wednesday, and will be replaced by Chris Hipkins, the new leader of the Labor Party.
"I am ready to take on many things," she said. "I am ready to be a backseat MP. I am ready to be a sister and a mother."
Noting that her daughter Neve is 4 years old, and she will start attending school next June.
Ardern was born in 1980 and was elected prime minister in 2017. She is one of the youngest female heads of government in the world, and the second leader to become a mother after giving birth while in office after Pakistani Prime Minister Benazir Bhutto in 1990. Ardern announced on January 19 during a press conference She will step down.