About 20 years ago, on a dreary day in Glasgow, I went to see an art-house film called ‘The Navigator’. The central character was a nine-year-old boy living in grim, medieval Cumbria (shot in monochrome) as the Black Death descends on England. Skipping through the fantastical plot, the young boy and a group of his elders start digging into the ground to escape this hell on earth and end up falling right through to modern day Auckland. The scene I recall best is the moment when the Cumbrian peasants peak out of the hole and glimpse the Auckland skyline in glorious technicolour. I also remember leaving the cinema to step out into the grey Glasgow drizzle thinking that life on the other side of the world might well be vivid and even glorious compared to the industrial decay all around me. Twenty years later, here I am, being driven through the strung-out suburbs of New Zealand’s biggest city on a flawless early autumn day. It’s been an awful start to the year in the UK - foul weather and economic disaster. At this moment in time, it feels good to be as far away from London as possible.

Urban Lite

It’s often said that New Zealanders outside of Auckland don’t like the city at all - a crowded, dirty and congested mess which defaces one of the world’s most beautiful countries. It’s true that the traffic is pretty hellish, but for urban dwellers in most other parts of the world Auckland feels spacious, calm and orderly. On our first night, we walked around the new harbour district (above), past smart apartment blocks and rows of plush yachts to a line of bars and restaurants which were lively but not overcrowded. We were soon seated at a table in the Soul Bar and Bistro to enjoy pan fried scallops and a Cloudy Bay Te Koko Oak aged Marlborough 2005. As most people know, Cloudy Bay is New Zealand’s outstanding wine producer. Te Koko is probably its great prize - an experiment in fermentation with indigenous yeast which has become one of the finest New World wines. Sipping this stuff, gazing out to the still waters of the Viaduct Harbour, the grim European winter seems very far away.

The Westin

Perched at one end of the Viaduct Harbour is the Westin Hotel, where we spent our first two nights in New Zealand (and two more as we criss-crossed the country).  I want to find fault with the Westin in some way, but I really can’t. It’s a near-perfect base for exploring the city. The staff combine a high degree of professionalism with that relaxed Kiwi style (thanks for helping my recovery my lost bag, guys). The rooms are very comfortable, with probably the best shower room I have ever experienced in a hotel (Westin has even trade-marked it as the ‘Heavenly Shower’). Breakfast in the Q Restaurant scores very high marks for freshness and choice. And cocktail hour in the retro-style Office bar is a perfect way to start an evening in Auckland.

Exploring the city

  

We didn’t have much time to experience everything that Auckland has to offer, but we did spend most of one day wandering around on one of the walks recommended by the Lonely Planet, which takes you from the harbour through the city centre to the low-rise districts where Auckland’s rapidly growing immigrant population (mainly from Asia) can be found. On the way we discovered the fashion cluster around Chancery Street, including Working Style, which has a fine collection of hand-finished suits and casual wear. Then it was on to Albert Park, a pretty Victorian garden which adjoins the campus of Auckland University and Old Government House, the colonial seat of power in the 19th century when the city was New Zealand’s capital. Although this is a gorgeous part of Auckland, it feels overwhelmingly colonial, too English - in stark contrast to the diverse student population milling around, mainly from China, Korea and other parts of the Asia Pacific.

Auckland Dining

We had two other fine dining experiences during our four nights in Auckland. The Westin concierge managed to get us a table on a Saturday night at Euro in the harbour district. This is clearly one of the hottest spots in town, as it was full of Auckland’s fashionable people, including a few who were preening themselves in that local celebrity ‘you must know who I am’ kind of way. Of course, we hadn’t the faintest idea who anyone was. Even after a fortnight in New Zealand, the only person I would recognise is that balding guy with thick glasses who presents the breakfast TV show on the main NZ channel. And he wasn’t in Euro that night, I don’t think. The evening menu at Euro is notable for creative seafood dishes - Tuna steak on mozzarella with tomato & bell pepper salsa  or Market fish wood roasted with Alaskan crab leg, red pepper couscous & Iberico ham green peppercorn sauce will give you the idea. And the wine list has some of the country’s finest vintages. But Euro suffers from that curse which affects most restaurants when they become highly fashionable – the staff give the impression they’re not that interested, especially when you are a foreigner. It was annoying, when we asked to sit on the heated outdoor terrace, to be hurried to a small table near the entrance – with the wind blowing strongly from the bay – when there was two other perfectly decent tables available. I was ordered not to complain, but someone took pity on us after half an hour and offered to move us to a much better spot. Our other notable restaurant experience was at The Grove, which is very near the harbour. This is a fine modern restaurant offering excellent New Zealand cuisine. Unfortunately, it was almost deserted on the night we were there (admittedly a Monday), perhaps a sign of the way the credit crunch has hit New Zealand’s biggest city. The other restaurant recommended to us which we didn’t get to was the O’Connell Street Bistro.

Conclusion

Gazing down from the observation deck at Auckland’s Sky Tower, still the tallest building in the southern hemisphere, I could see a modern city sprawling outwards from a narrow isthmus separating the Tasman Sea from the Tamaki River estuary. Twenty years after seeing The Navigator, it still feels like this place somehow represents ‘the future’, especially as it becomes more and more cosmopolitan with each new wave of Asian immigration. Although it seems horrifying to other Kiwis to have to bump along with 1.3 million other people in the same city, Auckland is actually the same size as London (with more than 7 million). So there is plenty of room for development.

Despite the terrible roads, this is a fine city which is worth spending two or three days in before exploring the rest of New Zealand.  In some alternative life, I could see myself holed up in one of those fancy apartments in the Viaduct Harbour – if I ever find a way to tunnel out of the old world.      

How we got there

We flew on on Air New Zealand from Heathrow to Auckland via Hong Kong. We will be posting a separate entry about the flights.

Our ratings for Auckland

1-5 stars

Westin

****

Air New Zealand

****                                                                                                            

Location

****

Click here for more pictures from Auckland