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Police will operate roadside checkpoints over Easter to stop people slipping off to their holiday baches.
Deputy Commissioner Wally Haumaha says most people have got the message they need to stay home to break any transmission of COVID-19, but there will always be some who try to test the rules.
"The travel out of your township to head to a holiday home is not permitted under the Health Act, so there are powers to stop people at checkpoints by the police and any unnecessary travel and be able to turn people around. People must stay home in their bubble, we continue to emphasise that," he says.
Mr Haumaha says officers have been told to focus on education, but after two weeks of lockdown, they are also more ready to take the step of enforcement if the message hasn't been taken in.
The number of people recovering from COVID-19 is now ahead of new cases.
In today’s briefing, Director-General of Health Dr Ashley Bloomfield revealed 35 people had recovered since yesterday and there were just 29 new cases, 23 of them confirmed.
The combined total of cases is now 1239.
Dr Bloomfield says 14 people are in hospital, four in ICU.
There remains a strong link with overseas trave, directly in 41 per cent of cases and through contact with an existing case in another 44 per cent.
He says most of the new cases were connected to a known cluster, showing the lockdown has been effective in ring-fencing cases.
Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern says two weeks into the lockdown it is not time to lift the controls.
She says the decline in cases fits the most optimistic models, but all that work could be quickly undone.
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