Celebrities step out for the opening of Auckland's Commercial Bay

Claire Moros, Hannah Barrett and Arabella Nelson all attended the opening of Auckland's Commercial Bay. Photo / Supplied

Want to network, party or do both? The winter social scene is heating up after NZ finally cracked it and moved to alert level 1.

VIPs crawled out of their lockdown shells on Tuesday for the preview of Commercial Bay - the new shopping and dining precinct in central Auckland. More than 100 guests, including Wendy Petrie, Hannah Barrett, Grace Palmer and Cassidy Morris turned out for a tour plus drinks and canapes.

The shopping centre officially opened on Thursday.

Cassidy Morris and Grace Palmer. Photo / Supplied

As life begins to return to normal, wedding designer Trish Peng is having a post-Covid launch party. It was postponed due to lockdown but now has a new date - July 9 - and Peng will celebrate with her champagne partner Laurent Perrier. Peng has been inundated this week with new brides planning their weddings - good old lockdown romance.

Meanwhile, tickets have sold out for Ladies who Lunch, which returns on June 25 at Harbourside Ocean Bar. Tickets are still available for the boys the following week, with Lads Who Lunch taking place at Wynyard Pavilion.

One of the city's top event maestros, Adam Bennett from Highlife Entertainment, tells Spy he is working on a big party, which will be a free event to kick-start the social scene.

"The response of RSVPs has been huge so we need to make sure that we have a slick game plan in place to accommodate everyone," Bennett says.

And Spy understands Hamish Pinkham, of Rhythm and Vines, has something special he'll be announcing soon. Watch this space.