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From 12am Wednesday the country will split in two, with everyone south of the Auckland border dropping down to alert level 3.
Police are bringing back the checkpoints to make sure those crossing the border from tomorrow are doing so for essential business only.
But for those living in the cut-off zone, they're in the position of having their neighbours in a different alert level.
The boundary along two rural roads has some residents scratching their heads about which supermarket they're now allowed to go to.
Our reporter Nick Truebridge spent the day on the southern boundary.