Take a walk: Halsey St, Wynyard Quarter

Let's take a walk down the Wynyard Quarter section of Halsey St, heading towards the waterfront at the north and see all the new buildings in this fast-changing zone.

We're starting with the new Fonterra world HQs, designed by Jasmax, a $93.2m building of seven levels, some said was too flash for the dairy co-op.

See the beautiful Nikau trees and planting along here: the idea here is fewer cars, more landscaping, a more pleasant walking and urban environment generally, no height difference between pavement and road, fewer street signs.

The Sofitel Viaduct Harbour faces the water on its city front, an international hotel, 5- star, 10 mins walk from the CBD, formerly the Westin.

The huge white new apartment block is by Willis Bond: Wynyard Central, a 12-level $220m building with 113 units. Blocks like this bring people into the area, once mainly home to industrial and marine-related businesses.

Now we're looking at the saw-tooth roof building, Mason Bros., a heritage brick structure where changes were designed by architects Warren and Mahoney – and it's their Auckland HQ, and it's up for a national architecture award in November.

"A floating gold-glass box sits over a generous public offering of an internal street alongside a laneway, reinforcing the mix of precious and urban," the NZ Institute of Architects says.

This smaller, squatter light building with the black circle on the front is the heritage Lysaght Building, part of GridAKL, an innovation hub seeking to inspire start-ups and new businesses, retaining the heritage character of the area: where the old meets the new.

At 132 Halsey, we're at another big new Willis Bond apartment building with the orange and blue colours.

And it's the harbour which draws people here, sweeping views across to the city within relatively easy walking distance.

Here's the Moller Architects'-designed ASB Waterfront Theatre, two years old, a 668-seat venue just across a courtyard but linked to ASB North Wharf via a walkway. Gordon Moller was chairman of this theatre as well as its architect.

We can see the new Park Hyatt Auckland. It will have 195 rooms and be 2.9ha of floor space. The design team for the project is local firm, Bossley Architects, Singapore based AR+D, and interior design is by world renowned Conran + Partners.

This new hotel is going up on what was the America's Cup bases for the 2001 race. The hotel will open next June.

There are 138 Chinese workers now starting to arrive on this site, needed because New Zealand didn't have enough of the fine decorating, timber veneer, finishing and fit-out experts to work here.

We finish the tour at the ANZ Viaduct Events Centre at the waterfront end of Halsey St, home to big events, conferences, meetings and the annual Fashion Week event.

And look back to why it's all here – this spectacular city view across the Viaduct Harbour, from the Wynyard Quarter towards the CBD. This is a rapidly changing area of Auckland with a dynamic and vibrant feel of considerable change to it.