weekend in auckland

Last weekend we took a last-minute trip to Auckland! We’re trying to do as many of these spontaneous trips as possible and I’m loving it. Auckland is on the North Island, and we’re on the South, so we flew there for around $100 bucks each way per person. I’ve only ever been to Auckland once, probably 4 years ago when I worked for an events company. It was my first event working for this company and I didn’t even leave the hotel venue once! Regrets.

Anyways, we thought we’d venture up to the ‘big smoke’ for a little city getaway; for some shopping, eating, drinking and relaxing. Most people we told that we were going there were pretty negative about it actually - “the traffic is really bad”; “you realise it’s just a big city right?”. We didn’t care, and felt pretty confident we’d like it. Some of our favourite holidays so far have been to big cities - Bangkok, Chiang Mai, Seoul, Amsterdam, and frequent trips to Sydney.

Auckland has this lovely Melbourne vibe, with a touch of Cape Town around the waterfront. It has all the benefits of a big bustling city, but without the crowds. We felt super relaxed and were able to get around really easily. It has that old charm mixed with the cool, modern attractions of inner-city life. For context, Auckland is just a bit bigger than Adelaide. They have Lime Scooters (electric scooters we have here in Christchurch too), which makes exploring so much easier for me, since I can’t walk that much. Such a fun and quick way to get from one end of town to the other!

What we ate/drank (with stars/3):

• Federal & Wolfe (breakfast) *

• Saan - Thai (dinner) ***

• Best Ugly Bagels (breakfast/lunch) ***

• Dr Rudi’s Rooftop Brewing Co (drink/snack) ***

• Headquarters - bar (drink) **

• BannSang - Korean (dinner) ***

• The Jefferson - whiskey bar(drink) ***

• Chuffed (breakfast) ***

What we did:

• Took a ferry to Devonport and walked around the waterfront

• Watched a play at Civic Theatre. We watched War Horse which was such a beautiful story and amazingly realistic puppetry for the horses (think about the animals in the Lion King play).

• Shopping on Queen Street and around

• Shopping in Ponsonby Road - very sweet boutiques

Where we stayed:

• Swanson Street, Airbnb

Things we’ll do next time:

• Auckland War Memorial Museum

• Art Gallery

• Waiheke Island

• Finding a cycling option to explore by

Here are some photos we took on my phone (Google Pixel 3), because I couldn’t be bothered carrying a DSLR + life’s too short for perfection!