Bay of Plenty Labour candidate Angie Warren-Clark might not have won her electorate on the night, but she'll be entering parliament nonetheless, thanks to special votes released on Saturday.

The former Tauranga Women's Refuge manager will be heading down to Wellington to join colleagues she campaigned alongside, including Tauranga-based list MP Jan Tinetti and Waiariki MP Tamati Coffey.

SunLive paid Angie a visit at her home yesterday afternoon, following the release of the results of the special votes.

'It feels a bit surreal. It's going to be a privileged position to be in. For the last two weeks it felt like time had stopped,” she says.

Due to her position on the Labour list, Angie was next in line for parliament if the party's vote lifted thanks to the specials, which weren't counted until October 7.

She says she took the week off after the election to relax following a hard-fought campaign, while enduring a nervous wait to see if she would become the Western Bay of Plenty's latest MP.

Now that she's beginning her first term as an MP, Jan hopes to use her background at Women's Refuge to help make changes to the way domestic violence is addressed in this country.

'As a feminist woman and someone who has walked alongside women and children affected by violence, I will be taking a gendered-analysis of domestic violence into parliament,” she says.

'Being from the Bay of Plenty, there will also be a plethora of things around the environment I would like to progress. But I'll be a backbencher, so I'll be told what to focus on, I guess!”

One of the first calls she received on Saturday was from her party's leader.

'Jacinda congratulated me and says they held off having the official caucus photo because they thought I would be there, but didn't want to pre-empt anything.”

Angie will be clearing out her desk at Tauranga Women's Refuge in the next couple of days, before flying down to parliament on Tuesday.