Kiwis moving houses and children reuniting with parents are among those crossing the Auckland border on Wednesday.
Despite the huge jump in cases, restrictions at Auckland's border have just become more relaxed.
Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern announced on Tuesday Aucklanders will be able to travel across the city's alert level boundary and into a level 2 environment if they are relocating permanently, if they have shared caregiving arrangements, or if they are returning home.
All you need is your ID, evidence of why you're travelling and a COVID-19 test that's no more than 72 hours old.
The announcement was a sigh of relief for the parents of 9-year-old Zane who has been locked down in west Auckland for the last six weeks.
On Tuesday he found out he can finally go and visit his dad who lives in Taumarunui.
"I'm feeling really great and happy," he told Newshub on Wednesday.
"It's the longest time I haven't seen him before… it is quite a big deal."
The announcement was also good news for many others including Grace Mayer and Jesse Reynolds who tried to move to Hamilton last week.
"We thought we were doing everything right, we'd already handed in our notice, everything on the Government website said we were okay to go," Reynolds said.
However, they were turned around at the border after the rules were tightened unexpectedly.
Homeless and helpless, they were grateful friends gave them a couch to sleep on.
"It felt pretty bad for us, and at least we had a roof over our heads so I can't imagine what it would be like for people in much more dire situations than ours," Mayer told Newshub.
But onwards and upwards, the next chapter of their journey starts on Wednesday.
