Two men and one woman from Sydney have been charged with importing, possession and attempting to export the class A drug.
All three will appear before an Auckland court next week, the NZ Customs Authority said.
NZ Customs Services officer Simon Williamson said it was the first bust in New Zealand involving liquid storage of cocaine, a method more commonly used overseas.
Destined for Australia
NZ Customs believes the cocaine was destined for Australia and says it shows the country is still being used as a transit point for drug shipments to Australia.
"The cocaine intercepted was believed to be destined for Australia and this latest interception proves that New Zealand continues to be used as a stopover, transit point for cocaine shipments destined for Australia," Mr Williamson said.
Sting leads to arrests
The arrest of the three Australians was the result of a sting operation, Mr Williamson said.
"It was very good work behind the scenes by a number of analysts who were looking at peculiar travel patterns previously and had identified these individuals were of interest," he told Radio New Zealand.
Mr Williamson said the method involved a passenger arriving on a flight heading elsewhere and meeting up with a second person flying from New Zealand to Australia.
"This is not an uncommon method of using public transit areas of airports for drug trafficking purposes."
"Drug trafficking syndicates are continually evolving more and more sophisticated methods to evade detection for drug shipments, and this is yet another example of this," he added.