Detective Inspector Andy Saunders said police would be in the wider Marokopa area over the next few days as part of their search for the family.
Officers will be investigating north of Marokopa, in and around Te Waitere and Te Maika.
"This has not been prompted by any specific sighting - it is simply a continuation of the ongoing investigation," Det Insp Saunders said.
In June 2024, an $80,000 police reward for information that led to the safe return of the children expired, with no sign of the fugitive father or his kids.
A video taken by hunters in October last year captured the first sighting of the missing family in nearly a year.
In November 2023, CCTV footage in the southern Waikato town of Piopio allegedly showed Phillips, along with a child, smashing the glass of a Piopio store.
In September 2023, police issued a warrant for Phillips' arrest in connection with an armed robbery of a bank in Te Kūiti in May that year.
In August 2023, a masked man believed to be Phillips was spotted at Bunnings hardware stores in Te Rapa and Hamilton.
The man used what police described as a large amount of cash to make purchases at both stores, including headlamps, batteries, seedlings, buckets and gumboots.
The children's mother, known as Cat, told Mata Reports she recognised her former partner in the Hamilton Bunnings carpark in the same incident.
Also in August 2023, Phillips was involved in a car chase on the road to Kāwhia, which began after a member of the public recognised the stolen ute he was driving in the Waikato town of Pirongia.
The family first disappeared in September 2021, sparking a 17-day search in dense bush surrounding Marokopa.
Police later charged Phillips with wasteful deployment of police resources, but he failed to show at Te Kūiti District Court on January 12, 2022.
