Behaviour at the Parliament protest hit a new low with police saying protesters threw human waste over some officers.
It happened while police were installing huge concrete blocks around the perimeter, locking in cars that blocked roads.
While Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern is still refusing to speak to the protesters, on Monday afternoon she did talk about ending the vaccine mandates.
Before the break of dawn, the police's obstruction operation began. At 3:30am, 300 police rolled in. They pushed back the mob and piece by piece replaced their human barrier with a concrete one, fencing off the spreading Parliament siege.
It was met with utterly disgusting behaviour. Eight were arrested during the standoff, seven police officers were physically injured and some officers had human faeces thrown at them by vitriolic protesters, making it even less likely they'll get an audience with the Prime Minister.
"On the day that protesters have thrown human waste at police... the suggestion that we would then engage with that kind of behaviour, I just reject that," Ardern said on Monday.
It's becoming a protest that never ends. The so-called village has now extended well beyond Parliament's grounds. Protesters have taken over the bus station, a nearby school and stretched their vehicle blockades down surrounding streets.
Victoria University's Pipitea campus is shut until April.
With seemingly limitless supplies of food and amenities, human waste has become more than just a problem for police.
Swim warnings were put in place by the council as they investigate raw sewage being emptied into the stormwater system around the Parliament area.
The only people Newshub found swimming on a sunny Wellington day were connected to the protest.
New recruits are forever arriving, even by sea on Monday. And increasingly, political parties are sailing even close to the protesters' 'end the mandates' line.
"The public health rationale for the mandates is much less than it was just a few short months ago. And it doesn't make you an anti-vaxxer to point this out," National leader Christopher Luxon said in a speech on Monday.
Asked if he was capitulating to the demands of the protesters, Luxon told Newshub: "No, absolutely not."
Ardern said she found the Opposition's position "quite upsetting" because they seemed to be "responding and sympathising with the protesters".
Though the Prime Minister herself signalled when we'll see the end of mandates and vaccine passes: once we're through the Omicron wave.
"We'll be able to move away from vaccine passes and many mandates because more people will have had COVID," she said in a speech at the Beehive.
She pointedly denied she was pressured into it by the mob outside.
"When that happens, it will be because easing restrictions won't compromise the lives of thousands of people - not because you demanded it."
The protesters' demands are growing louder and politicians' replies are growing stronger.
