Jacinda Ardern has left the Beehive for the final time as Prime Minister, greeted by a huge crowd on the Parliamentary forecourt that erupted into loud cheers.

Ardern hugged each member of her caucus who lined up to see her off. She was joined by fiance Clarke Gayford.

Colleagues farewelled her with gratitude, many visibly emotional.

“I can’t actually see where the car is,” said Ardern as she moved through the crowd, majority being staff who’d worked with her.

Jacinda Ardern was greeted by a huge crowd on the Parliamentary forecourt as she leaves the Beehive for the final time as Prime Minister.

She will have a private audience with Governor-General Dame Cindy Kiro where she will formally resign as Prime Minister - bringing an end to her time at the top.

She’ll leave Government House shortly after.

A little over an hour later, ministers Chris Hipkins and Carmel Sepuloni will make the same journey.

They too will have an audience with Kiro, but it will be public - not private (very public - it will be livestreamed on nzherald.co.nz). Kiro will swear them in as the new Prime Minister and Deputy Prime Minister.

In the case of Sepuloni, it will make official her status as New Zealand’s first Pacific Deputy Prime Minister.

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Hipkins and Sepuloni will not linger at Government House. Instead, they will return to the Beehive where Hipkins will chair his first Cabinet meeting. His first post-Cabinet press conference is expected at 3.30pm.

Speaking at Rātana on Tuesday, Hipkins spoke of the emotions of becoming Prime Minister.

“There are moments where it sinks in and there are moments where it still doesn’t quite feel real,” he said.

Ardern had her final formal public engagement as Prime Minister on Tuesday, travelling to Ratana with Hipkins for the annual celebration of the birthday of Ratana church founder T.W. Rātana. The day is a significant fixture for all politicians, but particularly for the Labour Party, which has an historic relationship with the church.

She travelled to Rātana in the same van as Hipkins, where the pair spoke for two hours.

While Hipkins would not be drawn on the advice, Ardern joked that there were “two hours of reckons”.

“Probably the most important advice I gave him was ‘you do you.’”

Hipkins has two big items on the agenda for his first week in the job. The first is what he has described as the “reining in” of the Government’s agenda.

This will pick up an effort begun by Ardern last year to run a ruler over the Government’s work programme with a view to axing unpopular and extraneous policies and focusing on a more narrow cost-of-living agenda.

This discussion will begin on Wednesday, but final decisions of what to cull will probably not be made until next week. Cabinet will need to formally resolve to end work on certain policies.

Hipkins’ other major task is to reshuffle his Cabinet. It is likely the axing of policies and the new Cabinet will be announced at the same time.

Ardern said she did not see the streamlining of the work programme as a repudiation of her time in office.

“Not at all,” she said.

Ardern leaves office at a time when there is greater awareness of the security threats she has faced as Prime Minister.

There has been public discussion about whether she should be afforded ongoing police protection, given these threats.

Such a decision would be made by the police, not ministers. National leader Christopher Luxon said he would support that move.

“I’d be very supportive of that,” Luxon said.

“I’ve observed when I see political leaders around the world. I even observe former prime ministers of New Zealand. I think there’s a period of time for which that is entirely appropriate,” he said.