Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern is asking iwi proposing to block people from entering the Bay of Islands this summer to work closely with the police on the issue.
A leaked email to Government agencies from Te Tii Waitangi ki Te Pēwhairangi says iwi want to put a hard border in place when Auckland's boundary lifts on December 15.
That would mean barring visitors from iconic summer holiday spots including Paihia and Russell.
"At this point in time, we cannot emphasise the need for as much support as you are able to provide to enable the protection of our communities in these trying times," the email says, as reported by TVNZ.
Asked about the issue on Tuesday, Ardern encouraged the group of local iwi members to work alongside the police.
"This is an issue that I have absolute confidence and trust in the ability of the police to work with [the] local community and determining how to check the compliance of [what we have] asked of travellers over the summer," she told reporters.
"With the boundary between Auckland and the north - there is an expectation that any traveller that is coming from Auckland does either need to be double vaccinated or have had a negative test result in the previous 72 hours, and we've said that it will be up to the police to determine how they will enforce that. That is an operational decision - we will leave that to them."
Ardern said the Government had moved carefully to open in Auckland's border.
"The COVID Protection Framework offers a layer of protection. Equally, those within Auckland - we've got rates as high as 90 percent double vaccinated."
Everything was being done to keep people safe, Ardern said.
"I would ask that they [iwi] work closely with police on any further work they'd like done around our boundaries."
