Auckland, New Zealand

Auckland Highlights

High street shops
Myers park and playground
Waterfront restaurants

Why visit Auckland?

For Aotearoa’s biggest city, a safe and pleasant place to visit on foot, with lots of delicious food choices.

Getting there and around

In 2023 we embarked on a 3 month trip to New Zealand, Australia and Japan.

For flights, we contacted Travel Nation for their help with planning and booking multi-destination flights. We had an initial phone call with Ruth at Travel Nation in 2022 to discuss our options. Over the months that followed we refined our itinerary via email, making changes as borders opened post-covid.

We paid Travel Nation £1900 per person for economy tickets for all our flights for New Zealand, Australia and Japan. Considering that UK - New Zealand return flights start from £1800 per person, this multi-destination ticket was far cheaper than if we’d booked separate flights with the airlines.

Normally we’d book directly with the airlines and avoid third parties but in this case, booking through Travel Nation during the uncertain time of the Covid pandemic made the process far simpler and more affordable.

At the end of January 2023 it was time pack our bags and hit the road again!

We flew with Luthansa from Manchester to Frankfurt, then to Hong Kong, and finally to Auckland. We flew for 25 hours in total (plus two x 3 hour layovers). After accounting for the time difference we arrived in Aotearoa New Zealand two days after leaving the UK. A taxi from the airport to our hotel cost £30. We walked around Auckland city centre.

We purchased Airalo e-sims before leaving the UK and activated them once we reached Auckland. The e-sims were £7 for 30 days for unlimited data in New Zealand. Our UK mobile network 3 charges £5 per day for roaming, so the Airalo option is an obvious choice.

Accommodation

M Social Hotel, Auckland

In Auckland we stayed at the M Social hotel for 3 nights. We had a room with two double beds and appreciated the plethora of lighting options, USB charging points, and free wi-fi. There was also a useful mini-fridge, safe, and free toiletries. There was a guest laundry but it wasn’t open unfortunately. Our room cost £140 per night, or £190 with breakfast. The hotel was located in the waterfront area, with a view of the harbour yachts and cruise ships.

Our star rating: 4

Our cost rating: 4

M Social Auckland

High Street Shops

Auckland is Aotearoa New Zealand’s biggest city (though not it’s capital) and has a population of around 1.5 million people. We had two full days to explore Auckland.

We enjoyed walking around, browsing shops and playing in parks. There was a high concentration of designer shops which aren’t our thing, but we did find some smaller and independent shops to browse in on the High Street.

We loved Unity Books and their sister children’s bookshop next door Little Unity Books. We also enjoyed browsing gaming merch at EB Games. Shut the Front Door was a homeware shop with pretty things and quirky gifts. Tatty’s had a cool and eclectic selection of pre-loved clothing. Gorman, an Australian brand, is one of our favourite clothing companies with their bright bold prints.

Myers Park

We spent a long time playing in Myers Park. It had a fantastic playground with an insect theme which the kids thoroughly enjoyed. There was plenty of shade and seating. Because it was a week day the playground was quiet apart from a few toddlers.

Waterfront Restaurants

We found eating in Auckland with kids to be easy and pleasurable. As a multicultural city with large Asian, Pacific Islanders and Maorí populations there is a great variety of cafes and restaurants in Auckland. We particularly enjoyed Taco Medic, White and Wongs, Ugly Bagels and Hello Beasty.

Final Thoughts

Auckland was a safe, pleasant and clean city to walk around. We felt the city centre was focused on commerce and high-end retail and we would have liked to explore the residential suburbs if we had more time.

We have family in Auckland but because we were suffering with jet lag and so sleepy during the afternoons and evenings, unfortunately we didn’t manage to meet up with them.

Auckland was a relaxing and friendly city where we could gently recover from the long journey to New Zealand and also a good jumping off point to start our road trip around Aoteroa New Zealand.