People are still returning, Auckland airport saw nearly 54,000 international arrivals for Aug/Sept, June/July saw 250,000+. Now not all will be staying but there's still a non-zero number of people returning.
Stats NZ still shows around 40k more people since March 2020 (https://www.stats.govt.nz/topics/population) with a slow down in growth but not negative?
I can't speak for other regions but Northlands auction's are still red hot. 4+ bidders are almost the default and going ~8-10% over the "on the market" price is common. Price growth seems to have slowed but isn't yet stopped or negative and days to sell are still very low at just 35-45 days. Overall inventory seems to be low overall with just 10-11 weeks worth for all of 2021 which is 1/2 to 2/3's what it was pre covid