The self-proclaimed Sovereign Hīkoi of Truth (SHOT) was stopped by police at Mercer, south of Auckland, thwarting their attempt to breach Auckland's border restrictions.
Video / Mike Scott / Michael Craig
"Incredibly disappointed" police have blasted the behaviour of anti-lockdown hīkoi members who blocked a state highway, risking public safety.
A strong police contingent is continuing to monitor a hīkoi involving members of the Sovereign Hīkoi of Truth (SHOT) movement at the Southern Auckland checkpoint border after a police line had to be used to move the protesters off the highway in the early hours of this morning.
"Police are incredibly disappointed that this group of protesters have chosen to take this action," they said in a statement.
"By carrying out non-essential travel they are putting themselves, our staff and the wider community at risk, while additional Police resources have had to be redeployed in order to monitor the movements of this group at the checkpoints."
The group claim to be heading to Waitangi - but have been told they are not welcome there by local Māori leaders.
Tai Tokerau Border Control founder Hone Harawira has described the hīkoi as "a scam" organised by Pākehā anti-vaxxers.
"There is no invitation from Waitangi Marae, no invitation from the Waitangi Treaty Grounds, no invitation from Ngāti Kawa or Ngāti Rahiri, and no invitation from Ngāpuhi," the former Tai Tokerau MP said.
The convoy of around 50 vehicles carrying about 100 people arrived at the Southern checkpoint border in Mercer just before midnight.
Two protest vehicles, including a bus, remain parked on State Highway 1 in the northern lanes with the drivers refusing to move them. Traffic is being diverted around them and police are attempting to get the drivers to move them off the road.
Police negotiators and iwi liaison officers were called in to help after some of the protesters "surged forward" on foot from Orams Rd blocking the southern lane of SH1, but when this failed a police line was used, a police media statement said.
"The group was directed by police to a gravel area on Orams Rd, to move away from blocking the road and disrupting traffic travelling through the checkpoint."
The group is trying to get to Waitangi in Northland where leader of the Outdoors Party and prominent anti-vaccine and anti-5G activist Sue Grey will be speaking.
Grey flew to Kerikeri on a private plane yesterday and then travelled to Waitangi yesterday.
Speaking on a Facebook livestream, Grey wanted to set the record straight and confirmed the Waitangi event was going ahead, but the "really, really bad news" was the hīkoi had been blocked at Auckland's southern border.
Police had put a big truck across the road and laid down spikes, she said. However, this had been strongly denied by police.
Grey said her co-leader Alan Simmons had told her that Hone Harawira seemed to have single-handedly convinced police that the event had been cancelled so a whole group of people were not being allowed through the checkpoint to attend.
Grey, speaking on a second livestreamed video, said people stopped at Auckland's southern border were "pretty unhappy and frustrated" at the way they had been treated and urged people to go and support them.
"It seems to me the people who need support are the people that are blocked at the border down in the south of Auckland wanting to come here that have been stopped. It would be helpful for people to give them some support because there are some pretty unhappy people there who are pretty frustrated with the way they've been treated and the information we have that it all came down to one person telling the police that everything is and that's why they weren't allowed to come through."
She said it seemed so unfair that if you could afford to fly on a plane from Wellington you could get there, but there was no route for those who wanted to drive from level 2 into another level 2 area.
Her advice to those who were being stopped was that it "if was good enough for police to block the people then it was good enough for the people to block the police", adding if the road was closed then it should be to everyone not just a select few.
Waikato mayor Allan Sanson said the protesters needed to go home. "They are not welcome here, they need to go home. They've actually come through a quarantine line, they don't belong here, they are not wanted here - bugger off."
Sanson said it was his understanding most of the people in the hīkoi were from Rotorua so had illegally travelled from a level 2 area into a level 3 area.
Meanwhile long queues have been building at the southern Mercer border into Auckland this morning and police are warning motorists there may be delays.
Dozens of cars involved in the hīkoi arrived at the checkpoint at midnight and are refusing to leave unless they are allowed through the border so they can travel up to Northland.
But the "peaceful protest" is causing havoc for commuters heading into Auckland this morning.
There is a heavy police presence at the Mercer border today. Photo / Mike Scott
A motorist told the Herald traffic was already crawling along almost 10km from the southern checkpoint near the Springhill Rd turnoff in Meremere. From there it was taking about an hour to get to the checkpoint.
Traffic is backed up on the southern motorway for almost 10km as people wait to get through Auckland's southern checkpoint. Photo / Mike Scott
Videos show SHOT members standing at the border saying they are standing "in peace, love and unity" and for the people who fear to submit to medical procedures they claim are harming people.
Police have beefed up staffing at the checkpoint to stop the group crossing through. A group of police officers have been standing in a line at the southern side of the motorway in front of the group preventing them from moving on to the busy road - but the number of officers was into double figures overnight.
One of the group's leaders can be heard on a live video posted on social media earlier this morning saying they will not disrespect the Police who are following a directive, but if they will not allow them to travel then they will stay right there until their whanau arrives.
Police and 'freedom' marchers at the Mercer checkpoint. Photo / Michael Craig
Several small tents have been set up on a grass verge near the Orams Rd checkpoint on the southern side of the motorway after the group were forced to camp there overnight.
"We don't move unless it's forward," the group can be heard saying.
Earlier this morning there were about 70 people gathered at the checkpoint and the unmasked protesters are refusing to move. There has been singing and chanting throughout the morning.
The group has dwindled to about 50 people who are setting up camp at the border. Three marquees have been erected.
Cars are also gathered near BP Bombay on the other side of the border waiting for the hīkoi to get through.
The 'freedom' marchers have set up camp and being refused permission to enter Auckland. Photo / Mike Scott
The group left Rotorua at 6pm with the aim of travelling through Auckland and is heading north to Te Tii o Waitangi for a pōwhiri at midday today.
More than 50 participants involved in the anti-lockdown hīkoi have also been stopped from crossing into Tai Tokerau by police at Auckland's northern border.
They attempted to enter Northland early on Wednesday morning, but authorities were quick to stop them. There are now only a few protesters remaining in Te Hana on the Auckland side of the border.
A car hīkoi linked to the group is also understood to have assembled at Kensington Park around 9.30am to move north towards Waitangi.
Ngāpuhi chair Wane Wharerau said the runanga also opposed the event because having a group opposing vaccinations was "dangerous" for whānau residing in Te Tai Tokerau at this time.
Wharerau said the hīkoi unfortunately diverted attention from a genuine commemoration of a covenant in the history of Ngāpuhi. More than 100 years ago Te Tai Tokerau lost thousands of whānau due to the Spanish flu and now it was facing a similar pandemic, but this time there was a vaccine available to help fight it, he said.
He said people would be welcome at a time when it was safe for them to do so.
Ngāti Whātua Ōrākei deputy chair Ngarimu Blair said as the tangata whenua of central Auckland it would not support such a protest at any time because such actions put at risk what the people of Auckland had endured and worked so hard for over successive lockdowns.
"Aucklanders have done the heavy lifting for the nation and we cannot be put at further risk of lengthier costly lockdowns because of the misguided actions of a few."
