''This is my last term.
''You can underline and bold the 'is'.
''I know it sounds really weird, having just been elected ... but people need to know it is ... someone, somewhere, somehow has to step up to the plate.
''This is not something you can do at the last minute.''
Ms van Uden was re-elected by a comfortable margin, beating the only other mayoral candidate, Glenorchy's Al Angus, by more than 4500 votes.
Mr Angus could not be reached for comment yesterday.
Like many of her councillors, Ms van Uden was also concerned at the low voter turnout. Despite a last-minute rush on voting when 912 votes were received across the district by noon on Saturday, just 44.9% of voting papers were returned.
Ms van Uden believed that was partly to do with the ''election style'' and it was time the district looked at online voting, or a return to election-day polls.
The 46-year-old said the new council was a ''mixed group'' and voters had elected a good cross- section of the community to represent them for the next three years.
However, she was disappointed with the loss of Wanaka councillors Jude Battson and Leigh Overton, who were replaced in the Wanaka ward by Calum MacLeod and Ella Lawton.
''Leigh has been a long-serving councillor that has a huge knowledge of the district plan ... and resource management.
''He's got a really good knowledge and understanding, and that will be missed around the table.
''Jude just brought a practical, common-sense voice of the people. I will miss her.''
The new council would be sworn in on October 25, at a special ceremony at Lake Hayes, and it had several challenges to deal with in the immediate future.
Those included the proposed Queenstown convention centre, ensuring the council-wide organisational review fulfilled its aims, and - potentially the most important and simultaneously most difficult - unifying the district.
''Bring on the next three years,'' Ms van Uden said.
''We've got lots to do. I'm really keen to get on and do it.''
