Covid 19 coronavirus: Popping bubbles: Almost 500 breaches reported to police - are we ready for level 2?

Almost 500 possible breaches of level-3 rules have been reported to police this weekend, as many Kiwis prepare for what they hope will be a move to level 2 this week.

People flocked to beach suburbs and took waterfront walks in cities such as Auckland - and there was a long queue for ice creams in Hamilton - but police are generally pleased with Kiwis' behaviour.

Fifty breaches of level-3 rules were confirmed in the 24 hours from 6pm on Friday to 6pm on Saturday, compared with 112 in the same 24-hour period last weekend.

Long queue at an ice cream truck at a kids playground in Hamilton today. Photo/Supplied

Altogether 479 possible breaches were reported to police between 8am on Saturday and 8am on Sunday, down 45 per cent from the same period last week.

"Overall, police are happy that the majority of New Zealanders are complying with Alert Level 3 restrictions," a spokeswoman said.

"In the vast majority of these incidents when police attended it was found either there was no breach or staff were able to engage with the people gathered and educate them on what is appropriate during alert level 3."

There was no social distancing on Tāmaki Drive on Saturday. Photo / TVNZ

Yet scores of people were seen

walking close together on Auckland's Tāmaki Drive

, and locals in Wellington's Lyall Bay said they had never seen so many surfers in the water as they saw this Saturday.

Today a Hamilton resident photographed what he described as "a half mile long queue at an ice cream truck at a kids playground that's supposed to be closed" at Hare Puke Drive, Flagstaff.

"As C3PO would say, 'We're doomed,'" he said, citing a robot character from Star Wars.

The contradictory evidence comes as Cabinet is due to decide tomorrow whether to move the Covid-19 alert level down from level 3 to level 2, which would allow gatherings of up to 100 people while keeping 1 metre apart from others indoors and "ideally 2 metres" apart outdoors.

The latest mobility data from the internet giant shows that although New Zealanders started moving around more in the first week out of lockdown, it was still much quieter than before the coronavirus crisis began in February.

On April 29, the first day of level 3, New Zealanders clogged fast food drive-thrus and hordes of people thronged Auckland's beaches, leading to fears of a coronavirus resurgence.

But although Google's data shows a definite uptick in park, beach and workplace visits, the numbers were still well down from a "baseline" on May 2 - the first Saturday out of lockdown.

At about 1pm today, a man driving through Auckland's Newmarket saw crowds outside Sun World Restaurant clearly not keeping to the social distancing rules while waiting for their takeaways.

"This is the second time today I'm seeing this, and the first time there were at least 10 more people standing close to each other," said the man who wanted to be known only as Roy.

"I am concerned because these people are not keeping to the rules, and their apathy or ignorance could put us back into level 4 and affect people's livelihoods."

But a Herald photographer on Tāmaki Drive late on Sunday morning said the area was not particularly busy.

"I've seen it busier. There are people out exercising, paddleboarding, but it's not mental."

Lots of people but not too much crowding at Kohimarama on Sunday morning. Photo / Alex Burton

Under level 3 rules people are allowed to drive to parks and beaches within their region, as long as they are following social distancing rules, stick to the nearest option and don't do anything dangerous.

By May 2, Google's data said 56 per cent fewer people were heading to the beach or park, compared to the baseline. By comparison, in the first week of lockdown such visits were down 78 per cent.

Visits to transport hubs, such as bus and train stations, were down 84 per cent in the first week of lockdown and by May 2 that was still down 65 per cent.

Travel to workplaces has been steadily trending upward since the lockdown lifted, but by May 2 they were still down 34 per cent on the baseline.

The data also gives a snapshot of which parts of the country are physically returning to work and who's still working from home, or not at all.

In Auckland workplace visits were still down 37 per cent by May 2, and in Wellington they were down 40 per cent. Canterbury was down 34 per cent and in Otago workplace visits were down 45 per cent.

But in the Bay of Plenty workplace visits were just 25 per cent below pre-lockdown levels, and in Gisborne it was 16 per cent.

Visits to places like restaurants, museums and libraries are still more than 80 per cent down on pre-Covid-19 levels - unsurprisingly given most of them are closed.

The mobility reports are generated from devices of people whose device has its location history setting turned on, so may not exactly represent the population's movements.

State highway monitoring by the NZ Transport Agency also shows an uptick in traffic but not to pre-Covid-19 levels.

An NZTA report for the week to May 1 found that although traffic doubled in some areas since the lockdown ended, it was still much lower than the same time last year.

With just one day to go until Cabinet decides whether to move into the much more relaxed level 2, the number of cases is still looking promising.

Academics have cautioned that people without symptoms could still be spreading the virus in the community, but as yet there's not evidence of that happening.

In the past seven days there have been nine new cases of Covid-19, including confirmed and probable cases. All appear to be linked to previous known cases, rather than community transmission.

It has been three weeks since the number of new cases in a day was in double digits.