There was calm in Parliament's protest pit on Wednesday as police and protesters recovered from 24 hours of mayhem.
But the nightmares of a super-spreader event in the thousands-strong crowd may have come true with the first positive protester cases confirmed by the Ministry of Health.
The police took back the streets car by car on Tuesday evening. Officers joked around with protesters as they tried to shrink the occupation further. It was a stark contrast to Tuesday morning's events which included riot gear and carnage.
"We've had some appalling tactics by some around this protest," Police Commissioner Andrew Coster told AM on Wednesday.
It was appalling to the public but the occupiers didn't believe it. They think the cops are lying about the violence - planting troublemakers in their midst, saying a man letting off fireworks was a police plant as he was wearing an earpiece.
Deaf Aotearoa told Newshub it's a hearing aid.
There was also footage widely shared showing a police officer deploying what looks like pepper spray before another officer runs into the shot grasping his eyes.
It looked like the same officer previously being attended to after getting a substance in his eyes early on Tuesday.
The protesters think it proves the unknown substance that stung three police officers on Tuesday was friendly fire.
"I don't believe that it was," Coster told AM when asked if the officers were hit with pepper spray. "But we are looking into what it was. We believe it was a liquid thrown at police."
After all the chaos, the camp was a lot quieter on Wednesday, with music playing, the barber shop open and guacamole to eat.
But there were fewer around to share it. While the tents still spread down the banks, and the trash continues to pile up, the crowds are waning.
The Police Commissioner is urging the peaceful protesters to bail.
"Then we will be able to address the unlawful behaviours that sit around the edge of it."
But the protesters - tinfoil hats and all - were encouraged by a visit from former Deputy Prime Minister Winston Peters on Tuesday.
"I hope to encourage the protesters to demand that they be heard," the New Zealand First leader told AM.
Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern is standing firm and refusing to engage with the protest.
"I stand firmly in the view that we should not be emboldening people who are acting illegally," she told reporters on the West Coast.
Despite his calls for mandatory mask-wearing in 2020, 76-year-old Peters decided to go facial-covering-free into the protest camp.
"If you use the wrong mask, it's next to useless," Peters said.
Wrong, and for the record, Peters was spotted leaving Wellington on Wednesday all masked up.
