Goff met his wife Mary in 1971 when she was a 15-year-old school leaver and he an 18-year-old long-haired leftie university student. They married in 1979 and have three grown-up children - Kristopher, an electrician, Kieran, who is in refrigeration, and Sara, who works for an industry training organisation. Goff is due to become a grandparent for the first time next month. The family shun the media spotlight, although Mary told the Herald on Saturday the mayoralty will be good for her husband, saying "he is easier to live with when he has got a challenge". The family have a bach at Orere Point, near Kawakawa Bay.
Phil Goff the farmer
Phil and Mary Goff live on an 8ha farmlet in Clevedon. When he can, he swaps a suit for gumboots and jeans. With all the spring rain, he has been throwing bundles of hay to steers and checking on newborn lambs. His current farm dog is a huntaway-beardie cross called Belle.
Goff inherited a love of motorbikes from his father Bruce, a 95-year-old war veteran. These days he rides a 2015 Triumph 850 motorcycle. In 2009, he led a group of bikers at the national ride-in day organised by Ulysses Motorcycle Club to protest at government plans to increase ACC levies for bikes. He sometimes rides with the Ulysses club and the Bro-CAAB children's charity bike ride.
Phil Goff the politician
Goff grew up in a Labour family. His grandmother would ring up the National Party to take her to the polls and then vote Labour. University politics, flatting with future Prime Minister Mike Moore and working to get Roger Douglas elected in 1969 in Manukau was followed by 32 years as a Labour MP, holding senior cabinet roles and becoming Leader of the Opposition. He will deliver a valedictory speech in Parliament Tuesday before dashing back to Auckland to run the Super City. Goff's work ethic is legendary.