Kerikeri's Old Packhouse Market has been cancelled this weekend amid concerns protesters travelling to Waitangi on Wednesday may have brought Covid to the Bay of Islands. Photo / Fotoworxx
Kerikeri's Old Packhouse Market has been cancelled this weekend amid concerns protesters travelling to Waitangi on Wednesday may have brought Covid to the Bay of Islands. Photo / Fotoworxx
Kerikeri's biggest weekend event has been cancelled amid concerns protesters who travelled to Waitangi could have brought Covid-19 to the Bay of Islands.
The Old Packhouse Market usually attracts thousands of people every Saturday and Sunday for a wide range of produce, crafts, collectables, kai and entertainment.
Co-owner Judy Hylandsaid until yesterday she had planned to go ahead with this weekend's markets but events at nearby Waitangi had made it too risky.
Large numbers of people from around Northland, and some who flew from elsewhere in the country, arrived at Te Tii Marae as part of a ''Sovereign Hīkoi of Truth'' (SHOT) protest against the Government's Covid measures.
Police estimated 2000 people attended, the majority of whom were there for the protest rather than the commemorations.
An estimated 100 more who left Rotorua and travelled through level 3 Waikato on Tuesday night were stopped at Auckland's southern border.
Their arrival coincided with Ngāpuhi's commemorations of the Declaration of Independence by northern chiefs on October 28, 1835.
Police estimated 2000 people travelled to Te Tii Marae in Waitangi on Wednesday with the majority there for the Sovereign Hīkoi of Truth protest rather than He Whakaputanga commemorations. Photo / Michael Cunningham
Hyland said she was sorry and disappointed to have to cancel the markets.
''With more than 1000 people at the protest, many of them without using masks or other safety protocols, it's too dangerous. The last thing we want is to be a location of interest.''
The closure would be a ''terrible'' financial hit for the market and stallholders who depended on the income.
However, Hyland said she had to protect the Packhouse cafe and the jobs of its full-time staff. The cafe would be open as usual with level 2 rules in place.
Even if the market opened for 100 customers at a time, six waves of 100 plus stallholders and staff was still a lot of people.
''I'm really sorry for the stallholders. I thought this weekend's market might have been one of the last as we know it, before the traffic light system comes in and the number of cases in Northland grows.''
Hyland said the segregation that could be enforced under the traffic light system was ''horrible'' and the market faced some tough choices to keep operating safely in future.
Labour Weekend's markets were also cancelled because of concerns people could try to travel from Auckland, and because of the positive cases in Northland.
However, with the Northland cases isolating well at home, she had been optimistic about the prospects for this weekend, until the protest.
Tai Tokerau Border Control founder Hone Harawira and Te Rūnanga-ā-iwi o Ngāpuhi earlier told the SHOT organisers they were not welcome.
Te Tii Marae said it had a long history of challenging government policies but urged those trying to come from south of Auckland to honour the anniversary of He Whakaputanga in their own areas.
