Police are already turning back would be holidaymakers trying to head away for the long weekend.

It comes as Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern pleaded with people not to be selfish and warned there would be road blocks and extra police over Easter.

DAVID WHITE/STUFF Police at a checkpoint in Maramarua where they turned around 20 per cent of the traffic.

New Zealanders were breaking the chain of Covid-19 transmission but success did not mean it was time to change the course, she said.

This is why the rules would continue and there would be extra enforcement over Easter.

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"You will have seen an increase in police enforcement in recent days, I expect that to continue, including road blocks in some places this Easter weekend," Ardern said.

"While most people are doing the right thing, some are not. We cannot let the selfish actions of a few set us back.

"No one wants that, especially after all that everyone has sacrificed to get us here."

Ross Giblin/Stuff Police are cracking down on anyone who might be travelling for non-essential purposes over Easter weekend. This checkpoint is on SH1 near Plimmerton, north of Wellington.

Removing restrictions now would allow the virus to spread rapidly once again and New Zealand could be back to the starting line within two weeks, she said.

"That's also why we will keep enforcing the rules."

CHECKPOINTS NATIONWIDE

At Kaiaua in the Coromandel, a road policing team from Counties Manukau South were stopping drivers heading towards the coast and through the Hauraki Plains, turning away those with an illegitimate reason to travel.

Among those told to turn around was a couple whose excuse was that "they were just going to the beach for a drive". "If we weren't here, they'd have gone to the beach and back again," road policing team supervisor Andrew Heath said. "We're educating and coercing people to go back home; what we don't want to do at this stage is be locking people up, but that option is there for us if people continue to breach the rules.

JOHN KIRK ANDERSON/STUFF A police officer stops a driver at Tai Tapu, Canterbury, who was traveling to Akaroa to visit family. He was turned around.

"So what's going to happen for that couple is there's going to be a notification put in against their names and that vehicle that they've breached the lockdown rules, and if they're stopped again, further action may be taken."

Heath said the checkpoints acted as a "bit of a finger wag" and reinforced the 'stay home, save lives' message that had been hammered into the public since Alert Level Four came into effect on March 26.

Officers also pinged a driver at the Hauraki "pinch point" for having a vehicle that had been unwarranted and unregistered for more than two years. When asked to explain where they had been and why they had more than one person in the car, the couple told police they were travelling to Maramarua from Thames and back again. Both went along for the ride because the male driver couldn't be trusted with the grocery shopping.

Heath had a word for people considering an Easter weekend escape - don't. There would be checkpoints situated at other pinch points at different times of the day, he said.

He also reminded people to drive safely when travelling for essential purposes. "Our main operation since the lockdown came into force has been focused on speed, because speed is the biggest factor that can put you in hospital, and if we can take the pressure off the hospital staff, that's what we're going to try and do."

In Wellington on Thursday, police were stopping and checking all vehicles travelling north out of Wellington on SH1 near Plimmerton. Police said there had been a stream of cars stopped there already today.

Ross Giblin/Stuff Police stop vehicles travelling north out of Wellington on SH1 near Plimmerton on Thursday.

Canterbury road policing manager Inspector Greg Cottam said Canterbury was not seeing a great deal of traffic on its highways apart from essential service vehicles.

Canterbury police would be setting up random checkpoints around the region from Thursday, looking for people who may be moving out of their bubble, he said.

Police would be "educating" people on isolation rules and relying on their goodwill to follow those rules. Warnings or prosecution would only be used for serious or repeat offenders, he said.

In Waikato police set up five checkpoints in the district as well as other checkpoints on the borders with Counties Manukau and Bay of Plenty police.

At a checkpoint set up in Maramarua police had turned around 20 per cent of the traffic, acting Waikato district commander Inspector Andrew Mortimore said.

"It's not people trying to get to baches or holiday spots, it's people going for drives for the sake of going for a drive."

He reminded people they should only be moving to access essential services.

They also had checkpoints in place on Wednesday night in Kopu-Hikuai and Mortimore said only nine cars in total came through the two checkpoints.

John Cowpland There were no checkpoints on the road to Waimarama and Ocean Beach in Hawkes Bay, but a makeshift sign was getting the message across.

However, police were worried about the high number of people who appeared to be in Whangamata and Whitianga.

"We are monitoring that."

If people had got to their baches for the long weekend, Mortimore said they might not get home again.

Ross Giblin/Stuff Police are on the lookout for anyone moving out their bubble to go on holiday over Easter.

"If people have got there and they shouldn't have got there, that's really disappointing.

"We will be doing checkpoints over the weekend so if people have got into those locations and are thinking they will head home ... they might get turned around."

Tasman road policing team leader Senior Sergeant Grant Andrews said before noon on Thursday, more than 10 vehicles from Christchurch heading to holiday spots in Nelson, Golden Bay and the West Coast were stopped and told to return home.

Canterbury police have warned there will be random checkpoints from today, while Waikato police have set up several checkpoints.

CAMPERVANS TURNED BACK

Andrews said a checkpoint had been set up at O'Sullivan's Bridge on State Highway 6 south of Murchison, due to the volume of traffic coming into the region from Canterbury and further south.

"There's been campervans, house buses and the like which have been clearly breaching the lockdown – and that's all there is to it.

"They've been warned, turned around, and sent back to their place of origin."

Andrews said due to the expected increase in volume on the road, the Murchison checkpoint would be strengthened and another set up at Springs Junction.

There were no excuses for people being uninformed about the rules of lockdown at this time, he said.

"You can't be unaware, there are signs on the road sides asking if your travel is essential –it's very clear you shouldn't be travelling.

"The risk we've got is we have people outside of the Tasman District trying to come here. There's very limited traffic trying to go the other way, it's people from further down south trying to come up into the West Coast and Nelson and Marlborough, which is really disappointing."

Andrews said no other checkpoints had been needed so far in Nelson, with very few people having to be turned away from the roads leading to Golden Bay and other holiday spots.

Ideally checkpoints would have been a "last resort", but because of the traffic they had been necessary for police to do their job safely, he said.

"We don't want to be doing checkpoints, we just want to be talking to individuals as they come along, when the traffic levels should be very light."

Another checkpoint had been set up on SH6 at Hira, the main link between Blenheim and Nelson, Nelson police said on its Facebook page.

Forty vehicles were stopped by police within 90 minutes, with 12 of them found to have no valid reason for travelling, the post said.

"These people were warned and told to go home immediately. Please stay home and stay safe."