There's surprise at just how many police are likely to staff Auckland's northern border over summer

Our newsroom understands about 300 cops from around the country will be used to monitor border checkpoints after Auckland's border lifts.

They'll be checking people are fully vaccinated or have had a negative Covid test.

Hamish Piercy -- the former Deputy Director of Road Policing at Canterbury Police -- says it's a huge deployment.

He says it's a lot of resources to have in one place, under any circumstances.

Police will only be doing spot checks on the region's southern border.