What will Level Three look like?

Today we'll find out what a Level Three restriction will look like and on Monday, we'll know if the country will move to it.

Level Four has been pretty full on, and we've been in our bubbles now for almost four weeks. The majority of people have been diligent about following the rules: we've stayed at home, made trips to the grocery, gone walking and biking near our homes, done everything we can to limit our movements around the place.

But now businesses are getting antsy, and quite understandably. They want to trade, get some money rolling in even if it's just take-out orders from their restaurants or more online goods for sale, and some continuation of the wheels of industry.

My neighbour said, 'I just want to be able to go out, get a coffee and buy some clothes.'

And fair enough. We miss that freedom that we take for granted - being able to jump into the car, go out, have a nice sweet treat in the cafe, pick up some winter gear at the shop. Yesterday I was plagued by a desire for sushi; sometimes I'll pop up the road and buy some for lunch and of course, I haven't been able to do that and I got quite pissy yesterday because I wanted sushi and could not have it. Harumph.

Those little freedoms, the meeting-up with mates over a beer or two, driving out to the West Coast for a different type of walk on a wild and wind-blown Muriwai Beach and a howdy-do with the gannets in their colony, maybe catch a movie or two, and of course sushi ...  

You don't know how much you miss 'em 'til they're gone, and people want to get back to work, to school, to the everyday. We want the structure back, we want to be at certain places at set times.

For those of us whose livelihoods and way forward are not at all clear, we want something we can go on: some information, a bit of reassurance about the future, anything that we can use to start rebuilding lives that have been turned upside down and shaken all about by this global crisis. 

Today we will receive information, an idea about what comes next: on Monday we will know even more and let's hope it's good news for all of us.      

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