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Green Party members from around the country are meeting in Dunedin this weekend to reflect on their achievements and choose a new leader.
The party is holding its annual conference and about 120 delegates will pick a female co-leader to replace Jeanette Fitzsimons, who is stepping down from politics.
Co-leader Russel Norman says the conference is also about reflecting on the party's success in the general election and some more recent victories, such as funding for insulation which was announced in the Budget.
He says the conference is a chance to plan for local body elections next year.
Sue Bradford and Metiria Turei are vying to replace Fitzsimons and Norman says he is looking forward to the vote.
Turei's early political career in the 1990s saw her stand for both the McGillicuddy Serious and the Aotearoa Legalise Cannabis Parties. She admits that back then she never envisaged being in the position she is now and she says she is amazed she has become an MP given that she didn't have much of an educational background until she got a law degree later in life.
Turei says it's a huge privilege to be part of the Greens, let alone have the chance of being its co-leader.
Bradford believes Turei is the front runner in their bid to co-lead the party. Bradford says the race is fairly close and she is welcoming the fact the Greens have had a proper competition for the job. She says in the past they have shied away from such approaches, preferring to have candidates stand uncontested.
Bradford is confident her public stand on child discipline laws won't harm her candidacy. Much has been made of her campaign on the section 59 repeal and whether public perception about it would affect her ability to lead the party. But she doubts it will be an issue and says most party members realise she was leading the charge on behalf of the Greens as a whole.
Goodbye Jeanette
Meanwhile, Fitzsimons is going out of the top level of politics the way she came in - with no animosity about how her party has been treated in politics.
In Labour's nine years in government the Greens were consistently put to one side as deals were struck with other parties such as United Future and New Zealand First. But Fitzsimons says she has no regrets about how things turned out, saying the party's political decisions were not made on whether people were nice to them, but on how they could achieve policies for supporters.
