Mike Yardley: Aucklanders come down, head south - the Mainland would love to see you

Change course and head South. The Mainland would love to see, Auckland. Southern hospitality awaits, the door is open. Photo / Doug Sherring

Opinion

OPINION

How many Aucklanders are going to be lined up at the northern boundary at 11.59 tonight, desperate to escape the cage? And desperate to avoid the checkpoint gridlock. I suspect there will be plenty at the starting line tonight.

Because the spectre of the hard boundary being switched out for these obstructive checkpoints is repugnant. It should never have come to this.

Aucklanders have gone full tilt to hit the milestones for freedom, absolutely blitzing the 90 per cent target. They don't deserve to be dicked around by Checkpoint Charlies.

Policing in New Zealand has been politicised. They've been bossed, like puppets of the state, instructed to collab with iwi, via a sneaky piece of legislation, passed under urgency.

The Beehive has crossed the line into operational directives. All to appease a bolshy, misguided bunch of roadblocking vigilantes. It's the sort of power-tripping and kowtowing to make a banana republic blush.

The holiday highway is on the cusp of devolving into the highway from hell. It's a reckless waste of precious police resources. I know several cops, pulled off the crime-infested streets of Christchurch, preparing to check vaccine passes in Uretiti.

How demeaning.

Surely the threat of being fined $1000 for crossing the boundary without a pass or negative test should suffice. Throw in the prospect of random checks, like drink-drive operations, as the police are planning for the southern boundary. But what we're seeing on the northern boundary is a debacle in the making. Officious checkpoints and spewing queues riding roughshod over your freedom of movement.

Who actually benefits from this exasperating shambles that's about to unfold?

The unvaccinated holdouts, the tuned out and wayward slackers of Northland have had ample opportunity to protect themselves. Why is the state pandering to people unwilling to protect themselves?

If the whole prospect of navigating the northern boundary leaves you cold or seething, I have an invitation. Come on down, my friend. Change course and head south. The Mainland would love to see, Auckland. Southern hospitality awaits, the door is open.

You are most welcome.