Business in Te Puke has gone from a trickle to something closer to a flood in the past week.
Only essential businesses were open under alert level 4, but the move to level 3 last week saw some businesses getting back to work, on a contactless, click and collect basis. Now, in some form or other, almost all businesses are operating again.
Marigold Cafe reopened last Wednesday, with customers only able to order at one door, and collect at the other.
Joint owner Angela Bruning says the cafe was open on a similar basis under level 3 last year, but she thinks this time the cafe was a little busier at first.
''That first day that we came out of level 4 people were buzzing to get out of the house more than anything and to have a coffee. It eased off a little bit on the Thursday and it was totally dead on Saturday. But I think people just appreciate that they can go somewhere for some human interaction.''
She says people were also there to support the business.
''We always find that we have really good local support and local people really stick behind us. When we came out [of level 4] all our regular customers jumped on supporting us and that's really good.''
Reopening was a lot less stressful than last year and everyone was accepting of the unusual way of doing things.
''We knew exactly how we were going to operate because it was the same as we did last year, and we didn't have that few days beforehand trying to figure out how we were going to do it contactless.
"And people jumped right back into that, coming to the door and staying out of everybody's bubble - I think it's just become the norm now and people just get on with it.''
A contactless coffee from the Marigold cafe's Heather Mollier.
One major difference between level 3 last year and this is the wearing of masks.
''Everybody's got behind wearing face masks. Especially we have noticed the older generation are really vigilant on scanning the QR code and that's been right since we came out of lockdown last year.''
Masks have caused some issues though.
''It is quite hard to understand people and I find, because I wear my mask home, you smile at people and then go, 'why am I smiling?'.
Te Puke Home Cookery owner Chanvathana Chhorn opened the bakery last Thursday. He hadn't opened under level 3 last year, but decided he would after two weeks of being closed under alert level 4 as he wanted to open to service his customers.
He said things were quieter than normal.
''It's a little bit quieter than before. I made the food like normal, but didn't have the people. Not many customers came to buy it.''
Chanvathana, who has owned the business for about five years, set up a table at the shop entrance with customers asking for what they wanted, and him bringing it out to them.
''I had people coming in to say they were happy to see me open under level 3, especially regular customers who came and buy my food and say they were happy to see me again.''
Jannine Pearce, who owns Te Puke Jewellers with her husband Rod, says the business was open although customers were not allowed inside the shop, under level 3 restrictions.
''It's really just for service, if people needed batteries and things, so it's been pretty quiet because people are adhering to the levels and doing really well.
''We just felt that we needed to open for a service because watch repairs and watch batteries are quite important.''
She says the shop was also open under alert level 3 last year, but is now fully open with level 2 restrictions in place.
''We are very excited about opening properly again.''
Te Puke New World owner John Gray says by and large customers have been well behaved and adhered to the various levels' requirements.
''We've had the odd one or two refusing to wear masks, but that's to be expected and the police have dealt with those people.''
He says the biggest issue has been the limit on the number of people in the store at any one time and social distancing.
''That slows everything down.''
A one-way system was set up in the supermarket.
''People are generally understanding having been through it before. People are getting frustrated through, not having anything open and I know it must be tough on other businesses.
"Level 2 will be great and it will just provide that bit more opportunity for those businesses that are finding it tough.''
He says social distancing among staff hasn't been an issue at checkout as the checkouts are 2m apart already, but in the fresh food department care has been needed.
''It's more about sanitising and wearing masks. It's top of mind and the ability to try and keep people separate is probably the toughest job - but everyone's been really, really good.''
He says while the supermarket has been fairly well stocked throughout, there have been some supply issues.
''But the suppliers are the same everywhere, its not just us. There's shipping delays and importing problems, there's everything, so it's a domino effect all the way through the supply chain to us.''
Limits have been placed on ''things we know are really stretched, but there are things that we can't do anything about that are just out of stock - and you just can't get".
''Pet food's been a problem for about six months and that doesn't seem like it's improving and I think we are going to have these stock issues probably through to the end of the year.''
He says it seems people have once again been baking at home during lockdown, with flour in high demand, and comfort foods have also been particularly popular.
As lockdown restrictions began to ease last year, Te Puke Economic Development Group initiated a Let's Keep it Local campaign and managing director Mark Boyle says the campaign will be reignited now the region is at alert level 2.
''We are going to start reminding everyone again that localism has been successful for us after the last lockdown, that there are a lot of local business and that we need to keep reminding ourselves to support local, buy local and let's keep it local Te Puke.''
