A record amount of methamphetamine was seized at New Zealand borders last year.

Customs said it stopped 1.2 tonnes of meth, or P, with a street value of more than $1 billion.

Customs made more than 4000 interceptions, including of 413kg of meth and more than a tonne of its precursor drugs. In 2015, 283kg of meth was stopped at the border.

Spokesperson Bruce Berry said officials were seeing larger quantities of finished meth and of MDMA or ecstasy.

Drugs were sent mainly by international mail, which suggested users were increasingly buying on illegal websites.

Concealments found in 2016 included 22kg of ephedrine in hollowed-out paper, 20kg of drugs inside false-bottom suitcases and 35kg of cocaine inside a horse head.

"We have these Rubik's cubes and plaster cast panda bears which were full of ephedrine which is used to make meth," Mr Berry said.

He said there had been an increase in large concealments.

"This year we found 176kg of meth in the structure of a shipping container," he said.

Mr Berry said New Zealand's meth and MDMA prices were higher than many overseas countries, which made drug smuggling a lucrative business for trans-national syndicates.

There was no doubt criminals were getting more sophisticated and smarter, but so was Customs, he said.

"We have a strong intelligence network and we are working closely with other countries to restrict drugs even getting to the boarder."

He said the seizure of 1.4 tonnes of cocaine on a New Zealand-registered yacht off the coast of Australia earlier this month showed it worked.

"I would like to think ... we are getting more than we are missing," Mr Berry said.

Mr Berry said a lot of drugs came from Asia, but there was an increase of meth originating from Canada, the US and Mexico.