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Tai Tokerau Border Control is teaming up with Northland police to ensure holidaymakers met the travel requirements before entering the region.
Their plans were revealed as iwi intentions for a hard border to keep visitors out of the Bay of Islands were scrapped.
Tai Tokerau Border Control (TTBC) co-coordinator Rueben Taipari said they would help man police-led checkpoints to ensure visitors had either a negative Covid test from the past 72-hours or a valid vaccine pass.
"At midnight on December 15, when the border opens, we will be standing there with police at that time."
They would continue their efforts until January 17 when Cabinet would meet to review the country's traffic light settings.
Taipari said the rough plans were for TTBC and Northland police to man the portion of State Highway One at Uretiti, north of the Waipū turn-off.
But the finer details - such as the exact location of the checkpoint - were still being worked through at a meeting with Northland District Commander Superintendent Tony Hill in Kerikeri on Thursday.
Taipari appreciated the collaboration between TTBC and police had evolved and improved since Covid first landed in the region.
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Advertise with NZME."It was always interrupted from the higher authorities that police have to answer to but Northland police have been great to work with. We're fortunate to have a regional commander like Tony."
Police Commissioner Andrew Coster said police and iwi had been working closely to ensure visitors were welcomed in a way that still protected vulnerable communities.
"Police will be very mindful of traffic flows, but the public can expect they may be stopped and spoken to by police to ensure they are abiding by the requirements of the Public Health Order."
"Police will have a low tolerance for people attempting to travel north without meeting the requirements," Coster said.
The border control volunteers would consist of Bay of Islands hapū members who put their hands up to help after their own plans for a hard border ceased.
The Advocate reported on Tuesday about a leaked email that revealed Te Tii Waitangi ki Te Pēwhairangi hopes to re-establish last year's roadblocks when the Auckland borders lift.
They told Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern, police, Northland District Health Board, and local iwi groups that they were discussing enforcing a hard border at Oromahoe Rd south of Ōpua, down to the Russell Ferry and Puketona in the north-east – ultimately severing visitor access to Ōpua, Waitangi, Russell, and Paihia.
But Te Tii Waitangi ki Te Pēwhairangi's border control plans were canned following a video conference on Tuesday evening to discuss their Covid response.
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Advertise with NZME.In a statement provided to the Advocate, Waitangi marae chairman Ngati Kawa Taituha said the person who leaked the email had acted independently of hapū members.
"Her stand to protect our whakapapa is admirable and that genuine intention deserves acknowledgement," he said.
"These are very challenging times which substantiates the unprecedented concerns about the safety and wellbeing of our community."
Taituha said hapū members had instead volunteered to assist Tai Tokerau Border Control and police check summer visitors were complying with travel criteria.
"As that will be an authorised, organised and resourced operation, we see no reason for setting up minor border controls in Ōpua or Puketona which lay south and west of our hapū's ancestral boundaries."
Taituha hoped his statement soothed concerns over border control in the Bay of Islands.
"We understand the social, economic, cultural and political impacts Covid is having on everyone's state of being," he said.
"It is our hope that this communication offers clarity and brings closure to these matters."
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