Wānaka residents have joined the anti-vaccine mandate protest in Wellington over the past 16 days, and a dedicated group of locals is also “standing up” by protesting on Ardmore Street every day.

The Wānaka App spoke to some of the attendees (they preferred not to be called protesters) at the anti-mandate Voices For Freedom event opposite the Lake Bar yesterday (Wednesday February 23).

“People come and drop off sandwiches and water for us,” Andy, a Wānaka resident who had just returned from a week in Wellington, said.

“Wellington is like this, times one thousand million,” he said.

Andy estimated about 400 Wānaka residents had attended the Wellington protest, describing it as “a revolving door”.

“I’ve been there [in Wellington] all week. I watched TV One news last night and I was blown away by the way they just managed to make us look like a bunch of crazies, and that is so not what is happening there.”

“It’s a giant community of maybe 30,000 people that are coming and going every day and there’s probably two or three thousand people living there; people speaking about their vaccine injuries and everything that has gone down.”

Andy worked for the security team at the Wellington protest. He said he witnessed police violence and said the police are blasting protestors with electro magnetic frequency weapons.

The local group supporting the Wellington protesters stand on the side of Ardmore Street each day from 12pm to 1pm, holding placards and banners, with messages such as ‘Truth will prevail’, ‘This is not the Kiwi way’, and ‘Vaccine passports equal Apartheid’.

One member of the group said the daily event attracts between 40 and 50 people who have been “impacted by what’s occurring”. 

“Many have lost our jobs,” she said.

Two attendees told the Wānaka App their reasons for taking part in the Wānaka event: They said they believed everyone, vaccinated or not, should be able to access the library, swimming pools and sports matches. 

They also claimed there were unreported vaccine injuries and “damage being done by these vaccines” and said face masks were “ridiculously harmful”.

The Ministry of Health website states that wearing masks is an important tool that can minimise the direct spread of the virus through particles in the air.

One protest attendee said she has been counting vehicles which pass the group and estimated that around 30 percent of drivers toot or wave their support. That percentage has increased since the Wellington protest began, she said.

Andy asked for “transparency of the media”.

“Please represent us in a truthful and honest and open way,” he said.

“We’ve just interviewed thousands of people up there in Wellington, thousands of people are telling the truth, this is not some weird conspiracy.”

Find information about Covid-19 here.

For the record …

Voices for Freedom is a national group opposed to vaccine mandates which has been criticised by experts for distributing Covid-19 misinformation.

The Wānaka App has sought comment from the local Voices for Freedom group since October. 

We were told VFF has “a very particular protocol about speaking with the media and any queries have to go through the head office”. We were also told “local VFF won’t engage with you”. 

The Wānaka App approached VFF national office twice, with no response.