The lockdown prompted a rash of alcohol purchases at some university hostels followed by an exodus of students moving home.
Victoria University of Wellington. Photo: Wikimedia Commons
Students told RNZ many were worried the lockdown period of seven days in Auckland and three days in the rest of the country would be extended.
Claire Thomas, a first-year student in Wellington, said news of the lockdown sparked an instant reaction in her student hostel.
"Basically, as soon as we found out, everyone rushed to the liquor store down the road," she said.
But Thomas said the mood turned after the government announced more cases of Covid-19 had been discovered.
"Slowly, everyone who had been planning on staying is planning on leaving as well," she said.
"It's just done a ripple effect and now everyone's decided to leave and the people who can't leave are now left by themselves completely."
Thomas said she was one of just two students on her floor of her hostel, and soon she would be leaving to go to her family in Auckland.
Fellow student Pauline Abeleda said she had made the same decision and returned home.
"Everyone just wanted to go home and stay with their families and didn't want to be at a hall just 'cos we knew it was going to be really lonely and it's just not mentally good to stay there by yourself without any family support," she said.
She said she would rather be at home in Auckland with good food and good wifi than in her hostel.
University of Auckland student Roan Upson said he left his hostel and moved in with a friend to avoid the the lockdown restrictions the hostel was introducing.
"If I had stayed at the hostel all our meal times would have been prescribed to a particular time. I wouldn't have been able to go to the kitchen or the common areas when I wanted to, I would have had to follow a timetable that I wouldn't have liked," he said.
He said it helped to be in lockdown with people you could get along with.
"Your bubble is whatever floor you're on in your university hostel so, if you don't get on with those people, then that can be quite challenging, which I understand happened quite a bit last year," he said.
The university had moved all classes online until the end of next week when the university started its mid-semester break.
He said the lack of hands-on labs was annoying.
"Everyone's pretty frustrated because we've all got stuff going on, everyone's busy. So yeah, a lot of people are calling it quite a disruption," he said.
University of Otago Student Yasmin Lala said mid-semester break would begin in a week and students in her hostel had been worried they would be stuck in Dunedin if the lockdown was extended.
She said she had decided to return to her home in Wellington rather than take the risk.
The Education Ministry had advised tertiary institutions that students were encouraged to move home if they could do so safely and within the 48-hour travel period allowed under the lockdown.