The 45-year-old was set to speak about her book A Different Kind of Power, winner of the E.H. McCormick Prize for General Non-Fiction.
Fed Deli, in Auckland’s CBD, where Dame Jacinda Ardern was seen lunching today. Photo / NZ Herald
About 50 anti-vaccine protesters gathered in Aotea Square during the event, carrying large placards and partially blocking access to the venue.
Heightened security was put in place ahead of her appearance at the festival, and attendees were advised they would not be readmitted if they left.
Ardern was unable to attend the Ockham New Zealand Book Awards days earlier because of scheduling conflicts with the Melbourne Writers Festival.
Her $3000 winnings were donated to literacy charity Read New Zealand Te Pou Muramura.
Today’s sighting marks one of only a handful of public appearances in New Zealand since the family moved across the Tasman earlier this year.
In the years since she left politics, Ardern has spent time in the United States and United Kingdom, but chose Australia as the family’s permanent home – at least for “a little bit of time”.
“One of the main attractions for us was the proximity to home,” she told the Sydney Morning Herald.
“We’d been far away for a while, and we wanted to be closer to friends and family, but also wanted to get back to a life that was, you know, a bit like what we might have in New Zealand.
Dame Jacinda Ardern has been spotted around Australia since her relocation, posing here for a photo with a local in Gerringong, south of
Sydney.
Ardern recently told Nine’s Today show that the family had been enjoying their new life across the Tasman.
“There’s so many similarities between Kiwis and Aussies and so it’s so like home in so many ways,” she said.
“People have been so welcoming.
“So it’s probably been our favourite bit, and then the beach.”
Ardern has remained active on the international stage since leaving politics, taking up dual fellowships at Harvard University and continuing work in global leadership and climate advocacy.
She was awarded an honorary degree from Oxford University last month in the midst of the UK’s record-breaking heatwave.