face prosecution. In response to the protests, Prime Minister Ardern stated that the protesters were not "representative of the vast bulk of New Zealanders." Opposition leader Judith Collins stated that National Party MPs would not be meeting the demonstrators, describing the Wellington protest as an anti-vaccination protest that they did not want to be associated with. Thousands of people marched to Parliament in Wellington to protest COVID-19 lockdown restrictions and vaccine mandates. The protest was organised by The Freedoms & Rights Coalition (TFRC). Protest participants include young and old, and a diverse mix of ethnicities. Protest signs range from anti-vaccine to "Trump 2020", alongside tino rangatiratanga and United Tribes flags. The Wellington protest disrupted traffic in the Wellington Central. Parliament's main entrances were locked down by Police and security guards. The Wellington protest included a group of teachers and a principal from Whakatāne who opposed the Government's vaccine mandate and did not trust the Pfizer-BioNTech COVID-19 vaccine. According to the media company Stuff, one of their photographers was grabbed and pushed by demonstrators during the Wellington protest. The same day, an estimated 50 people blocked a border crossing north of Auckland on State Highway One at Te Hana. Several vehicles were towed to clear the road. One protester assaulted a police officer. Police subsequently "deescalated" the situation and cleared the road. Te Rūnanga ō Ngāti Whātua leader and chief operating officer Antony Thompson criticised the anti-lockdown proesters for disrupting trucks carrying food and medical supplies headed for the Northland Region. In Tauranga, 100 people gathered at the corner of Elizabeth St and Cameron Rd with flags and banners calling for the Government to halt the vaccine mandate. The protest was organised via social media with protesters expressing solidarity with Wellington protesters. In addition, a drive-through protest was organised in the South Otago town of Balclutha by Owaka Valley dairy farmer Michael Magiera to protest both the Government and Farmland Cooperative's mandatory vaccination policies. In addition, 40 people took part in an anti-lockdown protest in Dunedin's Octagon. That same day, between 150 and 300 protesters marched in the Southland city of Invercargill from the Invercargill War Memorial to Labour List MP Liz Craig's electorate office. The protest was organised by Voices for Freedom with participants objecting to vaccine mandates and certificates and claiming that the Government was stripping citizens of their freedoms. 13 November The Freedoms & Rights Coalition (TFRC) staged