Auckland hairdressers were buzzing as they returned to work on the stroke of midnight, buoyed by the sight of loyal customers queuing in the street.
More than a dozen customers were waiting patiently in line on the North Shore's Birkenhead Ave to get a fresh haircut early today - and the queues were still pumping at 3am.
"I have been waiting a long time. I was going to get one the day they shut down," said Corbin Harkness, 17.
Under level 2, New Zealand is back in business, with stores, malls, cafe and restaurants reopening today.
Roads will be busier this morning as many Kiwis return to work, but needing to follow physical distancing and hygiene rules.
'Exciting day'
"It's a very exciting day," Briscoes managing director Rod Duke said today.
He expected a steady stream of customers through Briscoes and Rebel Sport stores today. "I think they will start pretty aggressively. The first week or two will be very very busy," he told Newstalk ZB's Mike Hosking.
However, he said he expected some other retailers would not be reopening - victims of having to close for the past seven weeks. A similar number would reopen for a while but find it too hard as the impacts continued.
As well as individual retailers, our biggest malls are reopening. Kiwi Property, which owns a number of malls around the country, will reopen its centres at reduced hours in level 2 from today. There will be no late-night trading until May 28.
Kiwi Property shopping centres include Sylvia Park and LynnMall in Auckland, The Base and Centre Place in Hamilton, The Plaza in Palmerston North and Northlands in Christchurch.
They will be using people counting systems to monitor customer capacity limits at each centre.
Around the country
Some cities are springing back to life sooner than others under alert level 2.
The end of lockdown means shops, malls, cafes, restaurants, hairdressers and gyms are allowed to reopen.
Businesses are allowed to operate with strict social distancing rules.
It's an almost normal day in Wellington, with heavy traffic on the motorways, lots of cars on suburban roads, and people gathering at public transport hubs.
In Auckland, traffic has been relatively free-flowing but has been picking up since 6am.
Several barbers have been serving customers through the night, and some gyms have reopened for 5am classes.
However, in Christchurch roads remain relatively quiet, with the only noticeable difference being the re-appearance of Lime e-scooters at popular spots.
The Canterbury Museum will be one of the first public facilities to reopen, with a limit of 100 people allowed inside at any one time.
Kelvin Hussey had arrived at Auckland's Ferry Terminal, for his first day back at work.
"I'm going out to dinner with my family after work, because it's my first day back at work. On the weekend I'm looking forward to going sailing."
Teacher Kevin Palmer was enjoying a coffee with his cycling mates, outside Auckland's Takapuna Beach Café.
"I'm back to school. I've had a lot of my students saying they don't know if they're coming back on Monday, so we'll just suck it and see I suppose."
