Level 4 lockdown was draconian I would say. Level 3 was like level 4 but you could get fast food, so a little less draconian. Level 2 was pretty much normal but those who could work from home had to work from home.

But we all just did what we needed to do. I think we got a great result from that in the end, and the government adjusted the Covid response to the public opinion as we eventually tired of lockdowns and had access to and good uptake of vaccines.

I would give our Covid response 8/10. Only thing that could have been better is we got the vaccine a few months early then it would have been more like 9/10 as we wouldn't have been rushing to vaccinate just as Delta was hitting and rushing to boost while Omicron is hitting.

Draconian, "excessively harsh and severe."

Where I live, the pediatric psychiatry clinics are still badly overloaded due to children who coped and then, when school and social activities were harshly constrained, didn't cope. I had the impression that NZ's lockdowns, such as they were, avoided that kind of severity.

They have definitely avoided the vast majority of deleterious effects from an overloaded health system, but it's definitely very harsh and severe to be instructed that you're now not allowed to leave your house for a month particularly when by world standards for freedom you are used to ranking right at the top. I think it meets the colloquial usage of draconian. Though I would say that word has a negative connotation indicating ones discontent at the state of things imposed on you by an authority. In my experience the vast majority of people initially supported the lockdowns and compliance was very high as we figured we just should do what we need to do and not fuss too much about it. I myself never labelled it draconian as I was in support of it, but those who were not in support of it at the time used that term.