Covid-19: Life on the borderline between alert level 4 and level 3

Tuesday, 31 August 2021

Police checkpoints will be set up at Mercer by 11pm on Tuesday night to stop all non-essential travel in and out of the super-city.

It looks like any other rural road in north Waikato: gravel driveways, green paddocks, a lonely lemon tree, and neighbours who yell to each other over their fences.

But a line drawn through the centre of Mercer’s Koheroa Rd by authorities has made it the site of a crucial national border in the fight to block the spread of Covid-19.

From 11pm tonight, police will set up a checkpoint at the small north Waikato settlement, attempting to block all non-essential travel out of the super-city – Auckland had a total of 597 community cases of the virus on Tuesday.

That regional border has potentially been impacted already, as a guard at Waikato’s Spring Hill prison tested positive for the virus on Monday night. The guard, from Auckland, is now self-isolating.

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“We identify as the Waikato, but we look north for our shopping, essential services and jobs,” says Mayo. Mercer residents Stuff spoke to consider themselves in Waikato, despite Auckland’s regional border erected at the settlement.

On Koheroa Rd in Mercer, residents were taking the impending onset of life at the border in their stride.

“We have just got to hope that common sense will prevail,” Tania Mayo said.

A Government Covid-19 map has caused confusion at the boundary, splitting Mercer’s Koheroa Rd into an Auckland side and a Waikato side.

On Monday, Stuff reported how a Government Covid-19 alert level boundary map had caused uncertainty at the border town.

A line separating Auckland and Waikato appeared to be drawn down the middle of Koheroa Rd –splitting residents on different sides of the same street into either alert level 4 and alert level 3.

Mayo said she heard the whole street was likely to be in level 4 – and police checkpoints at either ends of the road would ensure that.

Arrangements would likely be the same as they were in February 2021, she thought, when Auckland’s border was first extended south to Mercer from the Bombays.

Mayo said being included within the Auckland boundary meant Mercer residents could go to Countdown in Pokeno, a six-minute drive away, versus a 25-minute drive to Huntly. They could also access their medical services in South Auckland.

“We identify as the Waikato, but we look north for our shopping, essential services and jobs.”

Mercer wasn’t Auckland though, Mayo said, who moved to north Waikato to escape “boom boxes, sirens and aeroplanes”.

Another resident, who gave his name as AJ, said living on the borderline was “extremely weird”.

Mercer resident Krystal Kira, with her cat Jojo, says the Auckland border has followed her south.

“This is Waikato, we moved to Waikato to get out of Auckland, we pay Waikato rates.

“The only reason I think this is the border is for a logistical point of view. This isn’t Auckland.”

It’s easier for police to control movement from Mercer, AJ said.

He wanted some official certainty that the road was in one level, rather than split levels as the boundary map suggested.

Resident Trevor Pearman said he thought Mercer would be in level 4, and the southern corridor should start south of the settlement, from Meremere village below.

Establishing a border was “tricky” Pearman said, when residents either worked north, in the Auckland area, or south in Hamilton.

“It seems ridiculous they’ve drawn the line in the middle of the road, they need to put the whole community in one level.”

Krystal Kira said the Auckland border had “followed her south” since 2020.

She lived in Mangatāwhiri during the 2020 lockdown, right near another police roadblock.

Kira, who owns a landscaping business, said she won’t be working for some time yet, being under level 4.

Last lockdown, police were occasionally confused about whether to let Mercer residents south or north, she said.

“It depended a bit who you got on the day,” Kira said.

The Department of Prime Minister and Cabinet had been approached for comment on Tuesday regarding the alert levels on Koheroa Rd.

On Monday, Waikato district mayor Allan Sanson told Stuff he understood the entirety of the road would be encompassed within level 4.

In a statement released on Monday, Police Commissioner Andrew Coster said several southern checkpoints would be set up from 11pm on Tuesday night.

A checkpoint on State Highway 1 at Oram Rd would check northbound traffic, and south-flowing traffic would be stopped at the Mercer off-ramp.

Other checkpoints would be set up at Mangatāwhiri Rd/State Highway 24, at East Coast Rd – Waharau Regional Park, and SH22 at Pukekawa-Churchill Rd and Logan Rd.