Family and friends were transported in buggies to the venue today for the rehearsal and security has been beefed up.
Ardern, 43, and her TV presenter fiance Gayford, 47, will marry tomorrow.
They couple were photographed walking through the vineyard today.
Barbara Ward, Ardern’s close friend and wedding planner, was also seen walking with the couple’s child, Neve, who is believed to be part of the bridal party.
A wine connoisseur told The New Zealand Herald about 100 guests were invited and the minimum cost for a wedding at the luxury winery was $20,000.
Food for the wedding breakfast was similar to the venue’s summer menu.
Family and friends are understood to be staying in boutique cottages behind the restaurant.
The invite list is set to feature many of Ardern’s former colleagues in the now-opposition Labour Party, including party leader and fellow former prime minister Chris Hipkins.
Gayford popped the question five years later with his grandmother’s ring on Mokotahi Hill in northern Hawke’s Bay, as Diplomatic Protection Service officers kept watch nearby and a local dog tried to eat the chocolate he’d packed for the occasion.
The cliff-top proposal came 10 months after the birth of the couple’s daughter Neve and 18 months after Ardern became the country’s second-youngest prime minister when the then-Labour Party leader formed a coalition with Winston Peters’ party NZ First.
They’d made no plans “at all” for the wedding, Ardern told media after news of the engagement broke almost two weeks after the Easter proposal, when a ring was spotted on her finger during a ceremony at Pike River on the West Coast.
“I have absolutely no idea”, she said, when asked when the wedding would be.
The couple’s wedding would eventually be booked for the 2022 summer, the venue understood to be the farm homestead at Nick’s Head Station, 25km south of Gisborne.
The luxury rural estate, at which Grammy Award-winner Lorde was also understood to be on hand to entertain the couple’s loved ones and friends, is owned by US hedge fund billionaire John Griffin and his wife Amy.
But the arrival of the Omicron variant in late January 2022 and subsequent move to the red traffic light system - which restricted gatherings to fewer than 100 - spoiled the pair’s plans.
“Such is life”, Ardern said of their decision to call off the wedding.
“I am no different to, dare I say, thousands of other New Zealanders.”
The three-time Mt Albert MP had previously described herself as “the least-engaged bride”, as Gayford was in charge of organising the nuptials, but vowed there were no plans to delay their vows indefinitely.
When she resigned as Prime Minister almost a year ago, citing exhaustion, she included a special message to Gayford alongside promises to try to find ways to “keep working for New Zealand” and take Neve to her first day of school.
