Again he pulled out the gun and pointed it towards the woman, who had by then sought refuge at the back of the shop.
The man then picked up the cash register off the counter and ran out the door, ripping out the power lead out and smashing items onto the floor in his rush to leave.
The man is believed to have run to a vehicle, described as a blue sedan, parked behind the dairy. The vehicle has then driven out of the Whangarei Aquatic Centre car park, turned right onto Ewing Rd and then left onto Riverside Dr.
It is not known whether a second person was waiting with the vehicle.
It was a busy time of the day and there had been a number of customers in the dairy before the robbery.
Police were called and the dairy was shut while fingerprints and a forensic examination was done.
The male was described by witnesses as being dark skinned, possibly Maori, approximately 1.85m tall, possibly aged in his 20s and wearing a hooded sweatshirt.
The woman was working again yesterday but the dairy owner said it was the first incident at the dairy in the eight years he had owned it.
'It's getting increasingly dangerous running a dairy and we really have no way to protect ourselves," he said.
The robbery comes nine days after Oasis Store in Bream Bay Drive, Ruakaka, was targeted by a robber armed with a shotgun.
Anyone with information about the latest dairy robbery should contact Detective Evans on 09 430 4527.