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The south-west Christchurch seat of Wigram is likely to be a two-horse race between National's Tracy Summerfield and Labour's Dominik Yanzick.
Wigram takes its name from the former airfield at its heart. The electorate is young and diverse - but changing boundaries have also changed its character.
Why is it interesting?
While RNZAF Station Wigram - New Zealand's first military airfield - is long gone, the aerodrome has left its mark.
Street names give a nod to its aviation history along with the subdivision at its centre - Wigram Skies.
The electorate has been a left-wing stronghold for decades.
Labour MP Megan Woods inherited the seat from her mentor Jim Anderton after his retirement and has held it since 2011.
Anderton, who was a former Progressive, Alliance and NewLabour leader, held Wigram after the current seat was created in 1996.
Labour MP Mick Connelly held an earlier iteration of the seat from 1969 to 1978.
When electorate maps were redrawn last year, Wigram lost about 10,000 voters from traditionally ruby red areas close to the central city in Addington and Spreydon and picked up more than 11,000 voters from Prebbleton and rural areas carved from the deep blue neighbouring seat of Selwyn.
Selwyn National voters have often outnumbered Labour voters by more than two to one and Labour's candidate finished third in the electorate race in 2014.
Wigram is also diverse with only 63.3 percent of people identifying as European at the last Census, compared to 67.8 percent across New Zealand.
Data showed 10.2 percent identified as Māori (17.8 percent nationally), 4.8 percent as Pacific Peoples (8.9 percent nationally) and 28.9 percent as Asian (17.3 nationally).
The electorate is also younger with about 30 percent of potential voters aged between 18 and 34, although only 54 percent of people under 25 are enrolled to vote compared to 57.5 percent nationally.
Wigram has the lowest enrolment nationally across all age groups.
The seat will be an open race for the first time since 2011 because Woods is stepping aside after five terms to run as a list-only candidate.
What happened last election?
Woods garnered 15,590 votes, holding off National newcomer Tracy Summerfield by just 1179 votes.
The result was a steep decline from the 24,186 votes Woods picked up in 2020 and the slimmest margin by which she had ever won the seat.
National also won the party vote by 2152 votes, its best effort since the height of John Key's popularity in 2011 and 2014.
Who is standing?
With Woods standing as a list-only Labour candidate, newcomer Dominik Yanzick will represent the centre-left party in the election.
Yanzick works in the tech sector and previously worked in agritech in Lincoln. He grew up south of the Waitaki River in North Otago after his parents migrated to New Zealand in the late 1980s.
Tracy Summerfield is again standing for National after coming close to taking the seat in 2023. She previously owned and ran childhood education centres for 15 years and has more than 28 years of experience in accounting and finance across the public and private sectors.
List MP Laura McClure is representing ACT after unsuccessfully standing for Banks Peninsula in the last election. A Christchurch local, she led fire evacuation planning company Fire Safety Net before entering Parliament.
Political novices Bryce Park and Shreejan Pandey will represent New Zealand First and the Greens.
Park grew up in the Christchurch suburb of Yaldhurst and studied at the University of St Andrews in Scotland. He worked as an economic adviser on his father's unsuccessful 2019 Christchurch mayoral campaign.
Pandey is an electrical engineer and father of two. He is also director of the Monash Energy Institute at Melbourne's Monash University.
It is likely to be a two-horse race between Summerfield and Yanzick with current polling giving Yanzick the edge, although boundary changes since the last election are likely to create a tight race.
What do the locals say?
Alissa Docherty is one of the unenrolled under-25s and does not feel like her voice counts for much in the election.
"I don't see why it makes a difference if one person doesn't vote," she said.
"It just doesn't really faze me, I suppose. I don't feel like my input matters as much."
First-time voter Nikita McRobert, 20, is enrolled and enthusiastic about exercising her democratic right.
"If more people my age knew the importance of it, I feel like we'd definitely get more people voting," she said.
"I think that's really important. We definitely do need, especially people my age, to be voting more."
Most voters told RNZ the cost of living would be the biggest issue on their minds when they go to the ballot box.
Business owner Neetu Saini said business was tough with the lack of spare cash and retail crime still a concern.
"It's still very bad. Last month I had two people stealing off my shelves.
"I think it's increased a lot. I haven't seen any change," she said.
