Auckland Mayor Phil Goff has unleashed on anti-lockdown protesters as "crass and stupid" who blocked highways across the country leading to major delays for thousands of motorists.
The Freedoms & Rights Coalition protest group planned a "Great Gridlock" of slow moving vehicles to block traffic across several New Zealand cities today.
Goff expressed his anger on Facebook this afternoon after he personally encountered protesters on Auckland's Southern Motorway returning from a vaccination drive at Mt Smart Stadium.
"Apart from spreading disinformation and lies about Covid and vaccination and trying to prevent people going into Eden Park to get vaccinated last weekend, was there anything else the extreme anti-vaxxers could do to alienate more people in the community?" Goff wrote.
"Apparently yes. On the way back from Mt Smart Stadium this afternoon where I saw volunteers and medical staff working in the pouring rain to ensure people are protected, I ran into the anti-vaxxers protesting on the motorway.
"Cars across the three lanes of the motorway doing 50kph deliberately blocking people going about their business. Crass and stupid but what else would you expect!"
In Auckland, the motorcade of around 200 vehicles started at Manukau Central at 11am and split in two to do a southern-northwest-southwest highway loop along SH1 and SH20 to the city centre.
