Covid 19 coronavirus Delta outbreak: Kiwis flock to fast food outlets at dawn of alert level 3

People are getting their long-awaited takeaway fix in parts of New Zealand that woke up to alert level 3 this morning.

Everywhere south of Mercer is now under alert level 3, which means businesses can open for contactless click-and-collect - and that includes fast-food orders and takeaway coffees.

Newstalk ZB's Courtney Winter, who is outside McDonald's in Linwood in Christchurch, says more than a dozen cars have already come through the drive-through since about 6.30am.

People are desperately keen to get a taste of what they've been missing out on for the past two weeks.

Newstalk ZB reporter Jack Crossland went on an early "Maccas run" in Wellington.

"The road cones have been removed and already the cars are lining up. More than 10 cars are sitting in the drive-through, waiting for their morning run of McDonald's," he said about 6.30am.

Domino's NZ general manager Cameron Toomey said the pizza-delivery company was "definitely expecting a busy day ahead" - both for deliveries and people coming into stores in level-3 areas.

"We have zero-contact delivery available, and we have direct contact pickup available as well," he told Newstalk ZB's Kate Hawkesby.

"But we'll be making sure we've got procedures set up at the stores to ensure everybody can safely distance as well. We've been here before - we've taken a lot of learnings from last year and, and the various other movements in levels before, and from around the world as well. We just make sure we've got the right amount of people rostered on and we've got our procedures in place that allow us to meet the demand."

And KFC is appealing to customers to be patient when the stampede starts for takeaways, Newstalk ZB reports.

Hungry Kiwis were quick to get to McDonald's in Christchurch this morning. Photo / George Heard

Contactless and drive-thru sales are operating again at most KFC, Pizza Hut, Carl's Junior and Taco Bell stores south of Auckland under level 3.

A Restaurant Brands spokeswoman says customers are being asked to treat staff kindly while they wait for their orders. She says staff have stepped up cleaning and sanitising and will be wearing masks and gloves at all times.

KFC's menu is being reduced so social distancing rules can be maintained in kitchens.