Central cities looked much more vibrant on Monday, with many workers making the commute to their office for the first time in almost two months.
But traffic was much quieter than anticipated, with some workplaces still encouraging staff to work from home where possible.
"[It was] less busy than I thought it was going to be," one commuter told Newshub. "I thought it was going to be chocka but no, it was fine."
"With all that [social] distancing the trains were basically empty," another said.
The New Zealand Transport Agency (NZTA) was prepared for a busy morning on the roads, but traffic was actually quieter than it is during school holidays.
"Wellington, for example, saw about 20 percent below a normal weekday flow that we would have if we compared it back to 2019," NZTA systems manager Mark Owen said.
Those who did return to work at central offices made good use of their lunch break to catch up with others.
While under alert level 2 New Zealand's cities are looking much fuller, public transport could be slow to catch up; Auckland Transport says it's services were only about 30 per cent full on Monday morning.
That could be because alert level 2 is still very different to normal for some workplaces - with many people still logging on from home.
"We can allow and enable about 50 percent of employees to come into Vodafone and work," Vodafone chief people officer Jodi King said. "What we're seeing is actually about 30 percent of employees are choosing to come in at any one time."
Mars New Zealand HR director Grant Wyatt said its teams still remain connected remotely.
"Our field force is out working but for the next few weeks we are still working from home."
On Monday, the Director-General of Health put those who have returned to work or school at ease.
"We have a high degree of confidence that there are no cases of COVID-19 out there creating the risk either for school students or for others," Dr Ashley Bloomfield told reporters.
