Remember what life was like before COVID-19 restrictions? Now, after more than two years, we're just about there again.
The Government on Monday announced it has decided to ditch the traffic light framework altogether from midnight with just a few rules left.
Masks will no longer be required in retail and on public transport and they'll only be required in high-risk health settings, like in hospitals and at GPs.
Vaccine mandates are gone now too. It's now entirely up to employers if they want to enforce one.
It comes as New Zealand recorded just 1149 new community cases of COVID-19 on Monday, down from the peak of the outbreak in March when there were more than 23,000.
It is the end of an era - COVID-19's traffic lights not just turning green, but turned off altogether.
"This is a time when finally rather than feeling that COVID dictates what happens to us, our lives, and our future, we take back control," Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern said.
Actually, 927 days into the pandemic, it's the Government relinquishing its control.
Lockdowns, masks, vaccine mandates and COVID frameworks, which New Zealand's had in some form since March 2020. All the COVID arsenal, almost all gone by midnight.
"Now is the time to move forward without the extraordinary measures we have previously used and with the certainty we have all missed," said Ardern.
But infectious diseases expert Kurt Krause said as much as we may want COVID-19 to be over, it's still around.
"People are still dying from COVID and it's still a quite serious infection around the world," he said. "I'm just a little bit afraid that if we remove the whole system then it will be hard to reestablish the system."
But Ardern said now is the right time to make the move.
"We shelved the alert level system when it was right to. It's right to shelve the traffic light system now too. This pandemic has changed and we are too."
Now, just a few rules remain: masks are still mandatory at hospitals, GPs, urgent care, pharmacies, aged residential care and disability-related residential care. COVID cases still have to isolate for seven days from when you first start showing symptoms, but household contacts no longer have to stay home too.
Masks have been scrapped for pubs, planes, buses, supermarkets and shopping.
"We do not want to ask more of you than the evidence tells us we should," said Ardern. "That does not mean you shouldn't wear a mask or judge those who do. So please do respect those who choose to wear masks."
Greg Harford, chief executive of RetailNZ, welcomed the move.
"Two-thirds of customers on a national level aren't wearing masks. They're ignoring the rules or are claiming to be exempt so the rules are a bit of a nonsense."
New Zealand Disability Support Network chief executive Peter Reynolds said "some people will be concerned about the removal of restrictions".
"They'll see it as the removal of protections."
But COVID-19 Response Minister Dr Ayesha Verrall said she wants to reassure Kiwis "that we making these changes because risks are lower".
The Opposition says rules should have been tossed out ages ago.
"Good news that it has happened. We have been calling for it for some time. But frankly, Kiwis have moved on," said National leader Christopher Luxon.
So with COVID waning and its severity easing, it's time to move from the COVID new normal and back to the old normal.
Ardern on Monday described the restrictions as "frenemies".
"They did the job we needed. They kept people alive and safe and of course, we had longer periods of freedoms than most other countries."
See you COVID restrictions, you've been a time.
