The cost of bringing Auckland Zoo's new elephant, Anjalee, to New Zealand includes $600 thousand dollars to build a quarantine facility in Niue.

The 1.7-tonne female elephant was brought in from Sri Lanka after a three-month quarantine in Niue to keep the zoo's 32-year-old female elephant Burma company.

The quarantine facility will be used for a second elephant - with the total cost for bringing the pair into the country expected to be $3.2 million.