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Auckland is a city with many faces. Known locally by its Māori name, Tāmaki Makaurau, the city has a cosmopolitan heart with some of the best dining, drinking, and shopping in the country. Yet, urban sprawl quickly gives way to landscapes of New Zealand’s signature beauty here; to the west, the forested hills of the Waitākere Ranges border black sand beaches pummeled by surf. To the east of the city is the island-studded Waitematā Harbor.
Culturally, Auckland is just as diverse. More than forty percent of the city’s residents were born overseas, with significant communities of people from Pacific nations like Samoa and Tonga, and relatively close Asian countries such as India and China. This gives Auckland a multiculturalism reflected in eclectic food, art, and festivals. And with the FIFA Women’s World Cup taking over Eden Park, Auckland is deservedly having a moment in the sun. Here are all the best places to explore in New Zealand’s largest city.
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Where to eat
Auckland’s food scene is both expansively global and fiercely local. Cuisine is influenced by traditions from across the Pacific, Asia, and Europe. At the same time, chefs are increasingly celebrating the bounty of ingredients harvested, gathered, and foraged from the rich soils and coastlines of both islands.
Explore the restaurants dotted around central Auckland’s waterfront and you can savor flavors from across New Zealand without leaving the city.
On the menu at Homeland, chef Peter Gordon’s ‘food embassy for Aotearoa and the Pacific’ located in the waterfront Wynyard Quarter, you’ll see creamed paua from the Chatham Islands, and pork belly cooked in the traditional hāngī (earth oven) style. Kūmara, a sweet potato brought to New Zealand by early Māori settlers, is wood roasted and served with pesto made from kawakawa, a native plant.
A short distance away in the Viaduct Harbour is Hello Beasty. This restaurant serves East Asian fusion cuisine. Influences include Japanese, Chinese, and Korean cuisine, resulting in a menu with bold, creative flavors, like the slow-cooked New Zealand lamb in Sichuan sauce.
Further along the waterfront, in the glittering Commercial Bay shopping center which sits in the heart of Auckland, is Ahi (which means fire in te reo Māori). Chef Ben Bayly not only sources ingredients from around New Zealand but from the restaurant’s own organic kitchen garden. On the menu are wild-shot red deer and wallaby tartare, made with meat from wild wallabies hunted in the South Island. The carefully curated wine list at Ahi represents the diversity of New Zealand’s wine regions and styles, from Central Otago pinot noir to Hawke’s Bay viognier.
The sleek Britomart precinct, adjacent to Commercial Bay, is home to some of the city’s best restaurants. Among these is Mr Morris, opened by chef Michael Meredith in 2020 with the aim of defining a modern Pacific and New Zealand dining experience. The food, ranging from New Zealand grass fed beef and green-lipped mussels to fire-roasted tuatua (a type of shellfish) is local, ethical, and seasonal.
Another Britomart restaurant, Alma, is inspired by Andalusian cuisine. Alma’s food style embraces smokey flame-charred flavors from this far off region while remaining committed to seasonal, local produce like Te Matuku oysters from Waiheke Island.
What to do
To truly get to know Auckland, it pays to venture out of the city’s central business district. Queen Street, the main artery of the central city, is a busy thoroughfare dominated by big brand names and global chains.
Both Ponsonby Road and Karangahape Road, bordering the city center, have more charm. Both are excellent places to get to know New Zealand’s independent creators and designers. Karangahape Road is famous for its vintage shopping and art galleries, as well as drag cabaret and gay bars. Stop by Crushes to find goods and gifts made in New Zealand, and Tautai Gallery to see exhibitions from emerging and established Pacific artists. Adjacent Ponsonby Road features a string of independent boutiques. Step into the apothecary style fragrance store Curionoir, browse the aesthetic jumble of vintage homewares at Flotsam and Jetsam, or peruse wares from New Zealand fashion designers such as Kate Sylvester or Juliette Hogan.
Both roads have cafes aplenty, and picking up a flat white is a quintessential part of living like an Aucklander. Stop by Orphan’s Kitchen on Ponsonby Road for an inventive brunch menu, or Daily Bread for incredible baked goods. Bestie Cafe on Karangahape Road is a restful place to pause. Located in the historic Saint Kevins Arcade, the cafe offers views across Myers Park to the Sky Tower.
Despite being a city of 1.6 million—enormous by New Zealand standards—Auckland’s skyscrapered center is barely 45 minutes from bush or a beach, in any direction. Strike out west and follow narrow roads through native bush to reach Piha, a legendary surf beach and laid back coastal enclave. Climb Lion Rock, jutting up from the middle of the beach, for sunset views of the salt spray drenched coastline.
One of the best ways to spend a day in Auckland is to hitch a ride on a ferry across to Waiheke Island’s pristine beaches and coastal walkways. Most people come here for the wine; the island is laced with rows of grapes which are bottled into luscious Bordeaux blends. Enjoy wine tasting with sweeping views at wineries like Mudbrick, Tantalus Estate, or Stonyridge.
If you’re more interested in wildlife than wine, take a ferry to the island sanctuary of Tiritiri Matangi instead. Here you can see some of New Zealand’s rarest native birds, like the saddleback, kōkako, and takahe. Or, spot marine wildlife on a whale and dolphin safari. Whale watching trips leave from downtown Auckland and tour the Waitematā Harbour to spot the dolphins, Bryde’s whales, and even sharks, seals, and penguins.
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Where to stay
There’s no shortage of stylish hotels clustered around Auckland’s waterfront. The Hotel Britomart is one of the newer additions to Auckland’s hotel offerings, opening in 2020. The hotel is a bastion of calm in the buzzing Britomart shopping area, with strong sustainability credentials and impeccable design. Local materials are championed throughout the hotel—the timber-lined room interiors more closely resemble stylish cabins than inner city hotel rooms. If you don’t want to stray too far for dinner in the evening, kingi is The Hotel Britomart’s superb seafood restaurant.
Art- and design-focused QT Auckland by Auckland’s Viaduct Harbor has the added bonus of a rooftop bar popular among the city’s office workers. Some of the more personality-driven places to stay in Auckland are a little removed from the central business district. On a quiet, tree lined street in Ponsonby is Hotel Fitzroy, which houses 10 luxurious rooms in a restored 1910 villa. In the neighboring suburb of Grey Lynn is The Convent Hotel, which is exactly what it sounds like—a renovated convent. The former nunnery reopened as a boutique hotel in 2020, with 22 character filled rooms. The Convent Hotel is also home to Ada, a restaurant wildly popular with locals.
