The gateway to the north will reopen this weekend - but visitors will have to get in quick.
Waka Kotahi is temporarily opening the stretch of motorway linking Auckland to Northland from 28 March to 2 April, then it will close again until May.
Business groups earlier said the lengthy closure would be tough on Northland's economy.
Minister of Transport Simeon Brown toured the construction at the Brynderwyns on Tuesday, and said "excellent progress" had been made with teams working around the clock to fix slips caused by last year's storms.
"As Kiwis start to prepare their travel plans for Easter, the government is encouraging New Zealanders to support, visit, and explore Northland as the region remains open for business," Brown said.
"We know that this route is a crucial connection to and from Northland for both people and freight, so getting it opened for the long Easter weekend has been a priority."
Brown said the temporary reopening would help businesses.
"Northland's had it tough in recent years, this road was closed a number of times last year due to slips," he said.
"This is a compromise. I pushed really hard for it to be open over Easter because I know how important getting visitors and tourists to Northland is for that economy."
Whangārei Mayor Vince Cocurullo hoped to see plenty of visitors over the Easter weekend.
"[It] is wonderful news for Whangārei," he said. "Hopefully people out there are realising Northland is a place to come and enjoy and Easter is a good time to do it."
State Highway 1 at the Brynderwyn Hills will close again from 3 April till 13 May.
The stretch of motorway over the Brynderwyn Hills will close again after Easter. Photo: RNZ / Nick Monro
More than 300 repairs had been carried out to prepare detours around the Brynderwyn Hills. The combined 11.5km of upgrades had cost more than $5.5 million, funded by councils and central government.
NZTA director of regional relationships Steve Mutton said the repairs were on track to be completed in May.
"There's quite a bit of work to do. We've still got to clear some of the soil away, then we've got to re-do the surfacing, we need to do drainage," he said.
"But we're really confident we're going to get the road open again on the 13th of May."
Brown said he was satisfied with the agency's pace.
"My understanding is it's on schedule and on budget," he said.
"I'm expecting all projects around the country to be operating on time and on budget because we need to get things done in this country."
Project manager Ashley Cooper said working on the hills had presented some unique challenges.
"It's an area of outstanding natural beauty that we have to protect while we're carving great lumps out of it," he said.
"So there's an awful lot of environmental controls that we have to have in place."
He said the wildlife had been particularly disruptive. Kiwis, bats, frogs and skinks all lived in the hills.
"The project has more ecologists on it than I've ever experienced on any project before. More than twelve permanently based on site," Cooper said.
"We've got ecologists ahead of every excavator to go through and check that we're not disturbing any wildlife."
After all that work, Brown said the road would only last another decade.
"It does only buy seven to 10 years of resilience for this route, so the government is committed to the long term solution: we need an alternative to the Brynderwyns," Brown said.
"We've started work on what that might look like, there's a lot of work that needs to be done."
He did not know when it would happen or what it would cost.
"I can't give exact timeframes yet," he said.
"The reality is for the last six years no work has been undertaken, so we're starting that work now."
Brown said the government was planning to have an alternative route ready within the next 10 years.
