Tom Webster is the host of the new upcoming season of Grand Designs New Zealand. Photo / TVNZ
Tom Webster is the host of the new upcoming season of Grand Designs New Zealand. Photo / TVNZ
In this Herald on Sunday series, we ask well-known Aucklanders for their favourite spots in the city. This week, Tom Webster - British-born architect and host of the upcoming season of Grand Designs New Zealand - tells us all his favourite Auckland spots.
Favourite beach? How to choose when thereare so many great beaches in Auckland? I have a bit of a wanderlust for island excursions so I've got Ladies Bay on Rotoroa Island at the top of my list. Amazing swimming, crystal clear waters, rocks to clamber over for the kids. Sure it's a little pricey to get to the island but it feels like you're going on a mini holiday as you skirt the entire south coast of Waiheke on the ferry ride over. There's also a very fine visitor's centre by Pearson & Associates to see when you get there.
Favourite brunch spot? The Navy Museum Cafe in Devonport. Always tasty food, lovely staff, views across the water to the city, a neat little kids' playground outside and a brilliantly designed and curated museum next door to stroll around and rouse you from a post-brunch slumber.
Favourite restaurant for dinner with friends? I love a restaurant that is as enjoyable to visit with my kids as it is with friends; not as easy to achieve as you'd hope! Hello Beasty in the Viaduct does this so well. We all love the buns and noodles and of course the giant pink neon cat.
Favourite place to take a visitor? When my wife and I first arrived in New Zealand, good friends took us here and now we always take International visitors to the top of Maungawhau Mount Eden on the way back from the airport. A place from which to marvel at the incredible topography in all directions.
Favourite spot to finish a night out? The Devonport ferry. I felt like an eternal tourist when this was my daily commute but catching the ferry home from a night out is another experience altogether. A sometimes jaded party atmosphere, mixed with the elation of literally not missing the boat when it's the last one of the night. There's also onboard entertainment... just watch people trying to order, pay for and finish a drink from the bar during the short hop across the water, a bit of a challenge that!
Favourite place to get coffee? A weekend favourite is the Puhoi Valley Cafe, great coffee but also amazing icecream made in Puhoi and only available at the cafe. Unfortunately it temporarily closed this winter, affected by the pandemic, fingers crossed for a summer reopening.
Puhoi Valley Cafe & Cheese Store. Photo / Supplied
Favourite fish and chips shop? I used to think fish and chips were an English thing but, as I've since discovered, fush n chups (now I know how to spell it correctly) is as Kiwi as... and Fishy Business in Belmont is the only number that appears in my phone favourites.
Favourite trail for a hike? No need to limit yourself to one trail in Auckland, lockdowns aside. I'm making a slow attempt to visit all of the Tūpuna Maunga and I'll get there eventually. Those hikes sit alongside wild coastal walks above Piha and Anawhata, otherworldly dunescape adventures at Bethells, bush trails at Shakespear Regional Park complete with waterfalls and piwakawaka. All of these are unique and remarkable, but if you're really looking for one to repeat, then the low-tide coastal walk between the Takapuna, Narrow Neck and Cheltenham beaches, with Rangitoto as a companion, is always inspiring.
Favourite venue for a gig? I can't claim this as a favourite yet, more a strong ambition to go, but I just love the thought of a folk gig at the Takarunga Mount Victoria Bunker. Friends and neighbours rave about it: live music in a repurposed subterranean command post with occasional tiddlywinks competitions thrown in for fun. That appeals entirely to the West Country Brit in me.
Favourite place to find a bargain? Any Op Shop (the band is an old favourite too). I had to pass on a crisp secondhand copy of Donald Trump's "Think Like A Champion" and a Right Said Fred CD on my last visit to an Op Shop, but these places are also full of useful and interesting things looking for a new life and to avoid landfill. They're an antidote to our consumerist ways.
What are your favourite buildings in Auckland? I say this with complete bias but anything touched by my former colleagues, well, friends really, at Cheshire Architects, most particularly Hotel Britomart, a building that exudes complexity, craftsmanship, intimacy, historic sensitivity and artistic sensibility. Outside my own bias, I love the Devonport Library by Athfield Architects, a really thoughtfully composed and stimulating series of spaces in which to experience books.
• Grand Designs New Zealand premieres on 18 October at 7.30pm on TVNZ 1.
