Our First Impressions of Auckland, New Zealand

Auckland, New Zealand, is home to the majority of the country’s population, and after enjoying its semi-tropical weather, great coffee shops, and surprisingly small-town neighborhood vibes, we understand why that is. We’re visiting New Zealand on a working holiday visa, and spent our first week and a half in Auckland, at an Airbnb hosted by a local Kiwi. She was a well of information and shared tips from buying a van to eating feijoas. We highly recommend staying with a local to get your footing in any place you visit.

Overall, as lost twenty-year-olds (pushing thirty, but who’s counting?) searching for our place in the world, we found this city at the right moment.

Coming from America’s PNW, the time difference was a breeze, even though our clock was technically twenty hours ahead of home. However, some unexpected cultural differences caught our eye. Like us, Kiwis drive Subarus and Toyotas, but traffic flows on the left-hand side rather than the right. It also came as a shocking, and dangerous, surprise to learn that pedestrians yield to traffic, instead of the other way around–something we wished we’d learned before stepping out into the road at 7:00 am to grab a morning coffee.

Here’s the link to our favorite coffee shop, Neighbour, and the best vegan pastry shop, Maison des Lys Pâtisserie.

Coffee shops have quickly grabbed our hearts with their laid-back atmosphere, amazing coffee, and friendly people. We stopped by Neighbour Cafe nearly every day during our time in Auckland. We’d love to dive into the treasure trove of food this city has to offer in a future post.

One afternoon, we hopped on some scooters and headed to the park, where we laughed with a stranger about learning to stay on the left-hand side of the road. Little did we know, the person we met at the park would later be our Uber driver to Auckland’s CBD. This kind of interaction felt like something that would happen in a small town rather than a country’s largest city.

Here’s the link for Hard To Find Books, pictured above.

During our last few days, we stumbled into bookstore after bookstore, and despite our single carry-on bags, came out of nearly each one with a paperback. We knew we’d soon return to Auckland as we left for our next destination.

No place in the world is going to be perfect, especially right now, but we are grateful to be spending our next year here. Thanks for the warm welcome, Aotearoa, New Zealand.