It has been almost a week since the anti-mandate protesters were cleared off Parliament's lawn and the surrounding streets.
Since then, there has been a massive clean-up job underway to return the area to its former self.
RNZ reporter Soumya Bhamidipati and cameraman Angus Dreaver went to see how they are getting on.
Last week, the Cenotaph was covered in graffiti and had a makeshift shower attached to it. But after days of hard work, it is looking back to its best again.
Wellington City Council transport and infrastructure manager Brad Singh said all the streets around Parliament had been reopened, and most of the visible damage repaired.
"It's hard to imagine right now but this entire street was covered with the campers, so we had to come in and pick up all the material that was left behind, like used tins, poles, there were screws in the road surface that were being used to hold the tents up that we had to remove because those are all trip hazards," Singh said.
"We've had to come through and do a complete street sweep, remove all the rubbish off the street, again another high pressure wash across everything, all the little drains had to be flushed out and cleaned out because there was concern about stuff discharging into the stormwater and into the harbour ... and we're still doing monitoring of the water in the harbour at the moment."
Wellington City Council has repairs and a clean-up underway of Parliament grounds after the 23-day occupation by protesters ended. Photo: Facebook / Wellington City Council
Further down Lambton Quay, where protesters ripped out the pavers and threw them at police, the footpath has now been filled in with asphalt.
"What we've done here, specifically as a response to a request by the police, was not to put back the pavers that we have, but to asphalt it down as a temporary measure.
"We will be coming back to look at how we design this better and do it better, but for now the temporary solution is just to put the asphalt down so that it's a safe space."
Debris left behind at Parliament after the weeks-long protest. Photo: RNZ / Samuel Rillstone
Then up the road, on the other side of Parliament's lawn, is where portaloos were plumbed in the middle of an intersection.
"Once we removed the portaloos, flushed out the stormwater system and gave the place a general clean-up, it got rid of the smell," Singh said.
He said the street was now safe and usable but long-term damage repair would still take a while.
"Everywhere you look there's signs of what has happened and the strong police presence just reminds you of the fact that it happened not so long ago."
Photo: RNZ / Samuel Rillstone
Meanwhile, Wellingtonians walking through the area told RNZ they were relieved it was over.
"An absolute sense of freedom and gratitude, that it's all been sort of sorted out, and very grateful to the police and how they handled it," one local said.
"It's just a feeling of sheer relief, just being able to walk the street again and just everything sort of coming back to normal again felt so much like a weight had been lifted," another said.
"It's entirely different, like while the protest was going on there was rings of tents and they'd set up gazebos and stages, and I actually wasn't in Wellington when the protest finished but things look pretty chaotic," a third person said.
Rubbish left at Parliament grounds on 3 March, 2022, following a three-week occupation by anti-mandate and other protesters. Photo: RNZ / Samuel Rillstone
Green Land Cafe closed two days into the protest and only reopened yesterday.
Staff member Rose Burgess said she was glad to be back.
"It feel pretty surreal, it feels very good to be back at work but it's kind of shocking, like even just walking around there's so much police presence still, it feels like a ghost town."
Only about 40 to 50 people have been involved in the clean-up created by the masses at the protest, but already a massive difference is seen at the sites nearby Parliament compared with last week.
