Life in Dunedin returned to some semblance of normality yesterday, coffee and fast food being available for purchase again, but with hungry bellies came queues of traffic up and down the street.
Only about 10 cars were queued at McDonald’s Andersons Bay at 8am, but as lunchtime rolled around the line of eager patrons spilled out into Macandrew Rd and by 1pm more than 40 vehicles were in the queue.
Police assisted owner Justin Stonelake with traffic management.Mr Stonelake said he had expected a lunchtime rush, but did not realise how large it would be.
The rush started about noon and died down in the afternoon.
It was difficult to operate under Alert Level 3 protocols and only so many vehicles could fit on the premises, he said.
Despite the rush, all the customers had been good to deal with and were understanding about the wait.
He expected traffic to be back to usual by the end of today.
McDonald’s customer Ngapera Andrews said she had been looking forward to getting hot cakes since the lockdown began.
Pesajon Tili said he had taken the day off work to make sure he could get his fast food fix.
Cafes around the city opened to reasonable queues of customers.
The Long Dog cafe in St Clair was buzzing with customers at 8am, many enjoying a coffee beside the sea.
The Fix cafe owner Tim Milmine said reopening had been great and customer numbers had been steady.
About eight orders had been put in for coffee before the cafe opened.
Bacon Buttie Station assistant manager Katie Bathgate said there was much prep work to do overnight, but everything was ready to reopen by the morning.
They could not order any stock until the announcement was confirmed on Tuesday, but fortunately everything had come in on time.
Some schools and early childhood centres opened yesterday to look after the children of essential workers.
Punavai Ole Atamai Pre-School opened with just one child, who spent the day with three of the kindergarten’s staff.
Other preschools around the city were combining their classes.
Dunedin Kindergartens general manager Christine Kerr said her team combined all the children who were returning to its kindergartens into just two bubbles.
Rachel Reynolds Kindergarten and Wakari Kindergarten were open yesterday for no more than 10 children in each centre.
