Auckland

 
We visited Devonport, a small town across the bay from Auckland. You can take a ferry there from downtown Oakland. Devonport has the best views of Auckland across the water.


On our way there we stopped at the Lake House Art museum, which has a nice cafe (we did not eat there). 

We also drove to the west coast to Piha and Karekare beaches. Both are beautiful beaches but the walk from the parking lot to Karekare beach is a 10 minute hike through amazing scenery. Karekare is the beach where they filmed the movie The Piano. On your way to Piha from Auckland is the Elevation Cafe, a convenient mid-point to have a nice lunch or coffee. It is at the top of the mountains and it has breathtaking views of Auckland. The food is very good and inexpensive, very casual.

We drove through several neighborhoods in Auckland. Our favorites were Ponsonby and Parnell. Ponsonby is full of bars, restaurants, and shops, and it can get pretty busy and difficult to park. But once you park it is a lot of fun and the eating options are endless. If you drive through the Ponsonby neighborhood streets you will run into some spectacular views of the Auckland needle. Parnell, the other neighborhood, has museums, shops, and restaurants. The Britomart area is also nice, near the water with a lot of activity, bars, and restaurants. Finally, we visited the Birkenhead area for dinner one night, which is a quiet beach community.

Lodging: We stayed at the Langham Hotel, conveniently located near the University of Auckland and relatively close to the Ponsonby and Parnell neighborhoods.

Restaurants we really liked include Cafe Hanoi (Vietnamese, Britomart area); SPQR (Italian, Ponsonby area, the eggplant parmigiana with fresh tomato sauce was delicious); Ortolana (Fresh European, Britomart area, the friendliest staff); Milse (bakery and sweets, same owners as Ortolana, next door, looked great, but didn't try it); Rosie (Parnell neighborhood, same owners as Ortolana, great little cafe for brunch, breakfast, and desserts; the servers could not be nicer; this is the only restaurant where we ate a second time); Eight.Two (modern cuisine, Birkenhead area, excellent food and service); The Orphan's Kitchen (home style, casual, great food, and very friendly, Ponsonby area; you seat at long tables with other guests; the tables were beautifully crafted by the owners themselves out of huge tree trunks).