Coffee shops and restaurants around the country have gone to creative lengths to incorporate contactless service so that Kiwis can still get their caffeine fix.
Pizza paddles, toy trains and wooden slides are just some of the ways hospitality staff are working to keep their two-metre distance.
For Steve Stannard at Cyclista Coffee Bar and Roastery in Palmerston North, it was his dad’s old toy train set which had been sitting on top of a cupboard for 20 years.
It’s the “little engine that could” helping to serve coffee in a contactless way, which is also proving to be popular with the locals.
“I’ve had quite a few people tell me I need to expand the railway; I’ve just got to convince my wife to spend the money on the expansion," he joked on TVNZ1's Breakfast today. "We ended up on the Facebook page of the British Model Railways Association. I think they’re quite keen for us to expand as well.”
Aotea Coffee has added a sliding system to keep business contactless.
For Mr Stannard and many other hospitality owners, it’s about continuing the experience for customers even while they can’t sit down inside.
“It’s not just about serving coffee it’s about the experience because a lot of people have been tucked away in their homes. The best part about the trains is you get a smile from them as well.”
For Aotea Coffee, a homemade sliding mechanism has been introduced to help send their coffee to customers.
Fit with a quadruple cup holder which slides down a long plank of wood out of the shop window, the creative technique helps to serve big orders too.
It isn’t just the coffee shops and restaurants joining the trend but bookshops too.
Time Out bookstore in the Auckland suburb of Mount Eden has picked up a pizza peel to serve out books to customers hoping to catch up on their reading over the next few weeks.
Another popular spot in the big city is Zoom Espresso, having built another wooden work which is proving to be a hit.
Their paddle-like mechanism helps to send out the coffee to customers while keeping to the rules of Alert Level 3.
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