The city is awakening and it is going to get a lot louder this weekend.
The Highlanders are hosting the Chiefs in the opening game of the Super Rugby Aotearoa competition at Forsyth Barr Stadium on Saturday night and 13,000 tickets have been sold already.
In Dunedin yesterday, residents were out and about as Alert Level 1 came into force.
Enterprise Dunedin director John Christie said residents had been really good at supporting local businesses.
But that needed to continue.
‘‘Cashflow is king for these businesses.
‘‘That is the key for them ... a chance for the city to be reinvigorated.
‘‘The city is ready for it and the residents are ready for it.’’
‘‘Three weeks ago, we were in dire straits. Three months before that, the world was our oyster.
‘‘Now we have had promoters on the phone. The beer fest is locked in. We are looking at conferences.
‘‘But that top end stuff, the big concerts, we probably need Australia to open up.’’.
Mr Davies said the city was effectively back to normal and the game was the catalyst for what he hoped was a big weekend.
Highlanders chief executive Roger Clark said the interest in the game had been great and he was hoping to get more than 20,000 through the gates.
In the city, cafes were crammed yesterday as people revelled in their new freedom.
At the Corner Store Cafe, in Lower Stuart St, customer Sian Sutton said it was great seeing small businesses full of people again.
She was having lunch with a large group of friends and was happy to have physical contact with people once again.
Another customer, Anna Moore, said it was the little things that were good, such as being able to touch door handles.
