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• Published date: 27 February 2021

She sat at her desk on March 21, flanked by two New Zealand flags with a pot plant and her photo of Michael Joseph Savage behind her.

She was announcing something she later said she had not thought would ever happen in a democratic nation like New Zealand: plans for a lockdown of its people.

It was then that she first outlined the alert level system that has governed New Zealand life since. At that point, her aim was simply to “slow down Covid-19” to try to ensure the health system could cope.

New Zealand had 52 cases and Ardern put the country at level 2.

Level 3 came two days later, and the strict alert level 4 lockdown two days after that. But the four-week lockdown was so successful the “slowing the spread” goal turned into elimination, almost organically.

On June 8 — soon after New Zealand moved back to level 2 — it was announced there were no active cases of Covid-19.

ALMOST A year later, Ardern sits behind the same desk to talk about that year — how it changed her, the country and what lies ahead.

The flags are gone but the pot plant and Savage are still there, as well as a mug holding her pens, with “Feminist Killjoy” written on it

Ardern is now very confident in her Prime Ministerial skin. There is nothing tentative about her leadership.

She has admitted suffering from a touch of self-doubt in the past — but if she, or others, ever thought she was not up to the job, the past year has dispelled it completely.

There is also optimism in her.

The most recent community cases have been dealt with, with limited disruption to people’s lives.

The strategy of relying on contact-tracing and testing to stymie new clusters without lurching into hard, long lockdowns has so far worked.

The leaders of other countries probably thought Ardern had it easy, given the virus’ impact in their own countries and the lockdowns that stretched into infinity. But Ardern has talked about the “constant, grinding” anxiety that comes with leading during a pandemic.

“For the past year, Covid is constantly in my mind. Constantly. So now there are certain people, when they call, my question in my mind is ‘is this about Covid, or something else?’ And I won’t be alone in that.”

She still steels herself a little bit each morning, just before her update is due to arrive.

She remembers hearing about that first case. It was February 28, and she was in Sydney for meetings with Australian PM Scott Morrison.

She had been told of a suspected case the day before, and was told it was confirmed...