Jacinda Ardern At The UN, Featuring Baby Neve and Clarke: The Greatest Hits

On what is shaping up as half a very important work trip and half an opportunity to be fawned over by the media of a country with a *somewhat* less-relatable leader, Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern—partner Clarke Gayford and baby Neve in tow—is in New York. She made history by becoming the first-ever leader to bring her baby to a meeting of the UN General Assembly, and partner Clarke Gayford made his own clumsy and distinctly Kiwi impact on proceedings, interrupting Ardern’s brief meeting with Trump by knocking over a flagpole.

Here, in no particular order, are more highlights from a trip on which, according to the New York Times, the international news media has portrayed Ardern as "a new kind of unconventional 21st century leader".

In an interview on NBC’s breakfast TV staple Today, Ardern said that even though Neve was a “good baby” Ardern felt the need to apologise—basically New Zealand’s national pastime—to her fellow passengers as she boarded: "There's that look though, that you get when you walk onto a plane with a little one, that stare from other passengers which I felt very conscious of.”

When Trump opened his UN General Assembly speech by claiming his two-year-old administration had "accomplished more than that almost any administration in the history of our country” some global leaders erupted in laughter. Ardern, however, suppressed a chuckle, later commenting that "each President will take their own view of their relative position in history. It's not for me to judge, it's for the American people."

But Ardern did make it clear New Zealand would not be signing Trump’s renewed call for a war on drugs. The document requires participating countries to develop plans to reduce demand and supply of illicit drugs and to strengthen international cooperation, RNZ reports. Ardern, however, said her government would be approaching New Zealand’s illegal drug use as a health issue, not a criminal one.

If it’s not Rihanna pushing for influence with Ardern, apparently it’s Anne Hathaway. The PM took the chance to meet with the Oscar-winner and UN Women Goodwill Ambassador. Ardern told media she was "very excited” to meet and discuss their mutual interest in family and children policies. They were joined by UN Under-Secretary General and Executive Director of Women Phumzile Mlambo-Ngcuka, who tweeted a pic of the powerful trio.

It wasn’t all baby photo ops and the softball-questioning of breakfast TV. Ardern sat down with CNN journalist Christiane Amanpour, and did not hold back about one of the biggest challenges New Zealand faces: our country’s rate of domestic violence. "For some time we have had horrific rates of domestic violence, intimate partner violence, our reporting rate has been as low as nine percent," Ardern said.

The last time a New Zealand Prime Minister appeared on the famous talk show, John Key excruciatingly Kiwi-accented his way through the delivery of the 'Top Ten Reasons to Visit New Zealand'. Ardern was spared that indignity, but instead confirmed the accuracy of a cliché about a country so small that every last one of us had at least some involvement in a particular movie franchise. “I do find it slightly offensive [the perception] that every New Zealander starred in either Lord of the Rings or The Hobbit,” Ardern told host Stephen Colbert.

She later admitted she had unsuccessfully auditioned for a role.