Chlöe Swarbrick, the young woman who came from nowhere and finished third in the Auckland mayoralty race last year, has made it to parliament 12 months later.

She will become the youngest person to enter parliament since Marilyn Waring in 1975. 

The Greens candidate is ranked seventh on the party list, but came third in the electorate race in Maungakiekie.

The 23-year-old says she knows her life is going to change but hasn't thought about how that's going to play out.

"None of this is ever part of the game plan, I've kind of just fallen down this rabbit hole of trying to bring about as much change as possible," Swarbrick said last night.

It's a bittersweet result for the Green Party, however, with a number of established MPs leaving parliament with the drop in party vote share to 5.9%, down from 10.7% at the 2014 election, including Mojo Mathers, Denise Roche, and Barry Coates.

Golriz Ghahraman, however, may become New Zealand's first refugee MP if the final special vote counts push her over the line, being ranked eighth on the list.

She says the loss of some of the party's MPs is first on her mind - especially Mathers who's ranked just below her on the list.

"She's a friend, she does incredible work, I've such an incredible amount of respect for her so for me that was particularly close to home," she said.