The bubble expands as Kiwis break out

Kiwis have joyfully burst free from their homes after almost five weeks in lockdown, heading back to work, the beach, cafes and, in many cases, fast food outlets.

While Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern had expected 400,000 workers to return to their workplaces yesterday, the traffic hotspots weren’t on the motorways, they were at McDonald’s outlets and other takeaway stores.

McDonald’s drive-through queues caused traffic jams everywhere from Auckland and Gisborne to Wellington and Christchurch, while Domino’s Pizza said customers were most keen to get their hands on pepperoni, Hawaiian and meatlovers pizzas.

In Wellington, customers waited in McDonald’s drive-throughs from the minute the alert level 4 lockdown ended at midnight yesterday, while workers heading back to their jobs pulled up in carparks in the wee small hours to snack on Big Macs.

Business became so feverish at lunchtime in Wellington and Christchurch that police showed up to divert traffic around at least two stores where the queue of cars snaked out on to the road.

In Gisborne, drive-through queues could be seen in drone footage stretching around an entire city block.

McDonald’s didn’t have sales numbers for the rush but did say business was through the roof.

“What I do know is that nationally, trading at most of the McDonald’s restaurants has been about double that of a normal Tuesday,” a company spokesperson said.

“Most restaurants have seen a big lunch rush.”

The triumphant escape from home cooking for many Kiwis signalled the end of New Zealand’s hardline Covid19 lockdown that started on March 25.

Ardern said people should continue to work from home if they could.

However — while only businesses deemed essential could operate during alert level 4 — the move to alert level 3 enabled any business to reopen so long as it provided “contactless” service to customers and kept 1m physical distances between employees.

Police said the move to alert level 3 had led to an increase in traffic and people getting out and about but there were no “incidents of note” as of yesterday evening.

They expected Kiwis to take a short time to adjust to the new rules and police were keen to take an “education first approach”.

Auckland cafe Zoom Espresso in Green Bay took contactless customer service to new levels.

The business built a long wooden plank with a tray attached so the barista could push coffees out to customers without getting close to them, leading one Twitter user to share a video of the contraption.

“Love the Kiwi ingenuity!!,” Stephanie Whyte wrote in the post.