Aim: Public health officials recommended the use of face masks by the population to combat the transmission of COVID-19. Studies on self-reported behaviour are a poor substitute for assessing adherence to government recommendations. This study aimed to determine the percentage of pedestrians wearing masks in the Central Business District (CBD) and a suburb of Auckland, New Zealand (NZ).

Methods: This direct observational study of pedestrians crossing two busy intersections occurred between 22 August 2020 and 7 March 2022. Data collection occurred at three separate times during the day, in the morning (from 8 to 9 am), noon (from 12 to 1 pm) and afternoon (from 4 to 5 pm) for precisely one hour each time.

Results: Over 12 days of COVID alert level restrictions, we observed 30,855 pedestrians. Overall, 57.9% of pedestrians wore a mask outdoors. Masks-wearing was significantly higher in the CBD (64.0%) than in the suburb (38.7%), p < 0.001. Masks use was lower in the morning (51.1%) than at noon (56.1%) or afternoon (62.7%), p < 0.001, both in the CBD and the suburb.

Conclusion: This was the first observational study in NZ examining the public’s mask use during the COVID-19 pandemic. From our observations, there may be opportunities for improvement in public face mask use rates to decrease the spread of COVID-19 in the population. In addition, our findings can inform national and international public health agencies about face mask uptake in public.