Residents of the Coromandel are doing everything in their power to stop their town becoming known as COVID-mandel.
The first confirmed case of Delta spent the weekend in the seaside town, prompting locals to flock to testing centres.
It was all quiet on the region's quaint streets on Wednesday morning, but as the sun rose, residents were gearing up and nurses suiting up for the biggest COVID-19 testing drive this town has ever seen.
By 9am when the first people were swabbed, there were queues out the gate.
"I'm a bit of a hypochondriac so even hearing the word 'COVID' makes me feel a bit sick - it's quite scary, very frightening," one resident told Newshub.
And it was fear that drove a small group of Manaia locals to block off State Highway 25 last night.
They're urging people to "stay home, go home and go away".
Police were called to assist the group who wanted to protect kaumatua and kuia from bach owners fleeing Auckland - and they had some success.
"Police did operate a checkpoint there and we were able to turn around a large number of people," Police Commissioner Andrew Coster told a press conference on Wednesday.
Coromandel town is home to 13 of the 23 locations of interest, including the Star and Garter Hotel, which locals say was standing room only on Saturday night to watch the All Blacks test on TV.
"The pub was actually quite full on that night, there were a lot of people walking in and out, you couldn't get anywhere to sit," a local said.
The infected man visited Josie Fraser's cafe Umu three times over the weekend. She says her focus now is on her two staff members who are close contacts.
"They're upset," she said, "more upset that they've got older parents and the contact they may have had with them."
Both women had one dose of the vaccine - as do many people in the area, thanks to a mass vaccination event on Saturday.
Close to 300 residents have been tested today, and the ones Newshub spoke to were matter of fact and already looking to the future.
"It's here now so we've just got to do what we can, everyone behave and stay in, get tested. Being known as COVID-mandel isn't very cool," one person said.
Because, nobody, nobody, wants that.
