Covid 19: Welcome to the Hotel Auckland Delta outbreak: you can check out but you just can't pee

Deputy Prime Minister Grant Robertson can be forgiven for his mistake in saying Aucklanders were allowed to go inside for a tinkle while visiting the gardens of their mates.

The apparently ever-changing toilet rule is a good illustration of the uncertainty plaguing the start of Auckland's time at Step One Delta level 3.

That title alone tells you all you need to know about the departure from simplicity.

The toilet question was first asked of director general of health Dr Ashley Bloomfield at Monday's press conference. The PM answered instead, in an almost flippant manner. She suggested if you didn't have a good bladder, don't stay for long.

Bloomfield then said it seemed unlikely everybody would be gathering in the toilet at the same time, and the main problem would be in gatherings.

For very good reason, people took Bloomfield's response as the correct advice: you can go to the toilet, just not all at the same time.

He is, after the health expert whose advice the Government is relying on.

That changed overnight. The Covid-19 unit in the Department of PM and Cabinet decided the PM's advice was supreme.

Up went a rule not to enter anybody else's house for any reason: not to walk through to get to the back yard, not to go to the bathroom.

Let's face it, it is one of the rules people are likely to simply ignore both out of necessity and because it seems like an over-reach.

When you have to go, you have to go.

The chances of being caught popping into the privy at someone else's house are also fairly slim, unless Neighbourhood Watch really boost their brief and start monitoring these things through gaps in the buxus hedge (oh help them if the buxus ends up being used as the toilet).

Why not simply encourage precautions such as masks and hand washing after it? Or if you don't want people to go to the toilet, don't let them do things at which they might need to go to the toilet.

It is not the only rule people will end up ignoring, or on which there is confusion.

There was also confusion around the differences between the "outdoor gatherings" and "outdoor recreation" rules.

It was clear that outdoor catch ups (play dates, wines, picnics) involved a maximum of 10 people from two households (the 10:2 rule).

However, for outdoor recreation such as golf or tennis or tramping or exercising in a park the Monday night advice was it was a maximum of 10 people, but the household limit did not apply.

That too changed overnight. As of Wednesday morning, the 10:2 rule applied to outdoor catch ups and to all outdoor recreation activities except for the following:

Organised exercise classes, such as yoga, which have a cap of 10 people and 2 metre distancing rules, but no household cap.

Boating, for which the 10-people cap applies but only from one household.

The rules are set out here as they are updated.

It remained unclear what the rules were for places such as tennis clubs or golf clubs, which were now allowed to open.

However, it was unknown whether only 10 people from two households would be allowed on the entire golf course or tennis club courts at one time, or whether different groups could play distanced from each other. Those rules were still being developed, even as those clubs let people in to play.

It also seems bizarre that people can meet in groups of up to 10 people from two households at a time - but can arrange as many such hook-ups as they please in a day.

The PM has said she simply wanted to give Aucklanders a bit of a reprieve and to do it in a low-risk way. It sounded simple: meet outdoors in small groups. But then other bits got added, recreational activities, sports clubs opening, boating.

She has tried to emphasise all other restrictions of level 3 still apply and Auckland is still technically in "lockdown".

She failed to take human behaviour into account, and broke the cardinal rule of lockdowns: that of keeping them simple.

The move from level 4 to level 3 alone is a test of the give an inch, and people will take a mile maxim.

Auckland is currently not just in Level 3 – but Delta level 3 Step One of Three Steps.

There is a meme doing the rounds comparing the Government messaging of 2020 lockdowns with that of this month. In 2020 it shows the simple "Stay Home Save Lives" poster.

For 2021, the mock-up reads "Ok, so it's a three-step plan. Step one will begin at 11.59pm Tuesday. Auckland will remain at Alert 3 but with key changes," and so-on in ever-decreasing font.

Not everybody is going to check the fine print of the rules every day to see what specific rules apply for their planned activities, and whether they have changed from the day before.

Even if they do, Covid rules are like tax rules.

People will always be creative about finding the loopholes in them, and there will always be loopholes which the rule makers did not foresee and have to scramble to close.

One example was people deciding it was possible to have an outdoors gathering with their hairdresser, for example. That too has now had to be specifically ruled out, on the grounds hairdressing is a close contact sport.

That means more and more and more specific rules for specific situations.

That means more and more confusion. In a battle against Delta, confusion is not your ally.