The Wynyard Crossing lifting bridge (left) connects Karanga Plaza in Wynyard Quarter to the Viaduct Harbour. Photo / Neil Porten
The Wynyard Crossing lifting bridge (left) connects Karanga Plaza in Wynyard Quarter to the Viaduct Harbour. Photo / Neil Porten
Not just a "staycation", but a "sailcation", no less. A couple of nights in a hotel in Auckland's Wynyard Quarter and a dinner cruise on the Waitematā Harbour. The bare bones - the keel and frame, if you will - on which to build a fully rigged weekend getaway.
Wynyard Quarter is at the heart of the city's western waterfront, which stretches from Westhaven Dr beneath the Auckland Harbour Bridge to the Ferry Building at the foot of Queen St.
While there's the whole city to explore, we decide this flat and compact seaside neighbourhood has more than enough history, scenery, art and entertainment to fill a sailcation weekend to the gunwales.
Explore Auckland Dinner Cruise on the Waitemata Harbour. Photo / Supplied
On Jellicoe St, at the very western edge of Wynyard Quarter, is Silo Marina, where you will find the Classic Yacht Association's fleet of historic New Zealand sailing and motor boats. You'll see the gaff cutter Wairiki, a 34ft yacht built of kauri on Cheltenham Beach in 1904. And next to her the Sam Ford designed and built 38ft launch Menai, her teak railings as shiny as the day she was built in Northcote in 1937.
Just up the road, on Hamer St, is the restored Percy Vos boat shed, where many of Auckland's wooden vessels were built for decades. Hamer and Brigham streets once housed the city's "Tank Farm" of oil-storage facilities. Cleared now, this land at Wynyard Point awaits development in a way that makes the most of one of the best sites on the Waitematā.
Explore Auckland Dinner Cruise on the Waitemata Harbour. Photo / Supplied
The red Auckland Dockline Tram loops Jellicoe, Halsey, Gaunt and Daldy streets. From it, you'll see the green zone along Daldy St which includes Amey Daldy Park, named after a prominent Auckland suffragist. Hop off the tram and grab a coffee and something spectacular to eat from the cabinet at La Petite Fourchette patisserie right next to the park. Or try Wander Cafe: this relaxed French bistro is open all day, serving great food a clam shell's throw away from the Auckland Fish Market across the road.
Around the corner is Tiramarama Way, a thoroughfare that features collaborative work by landscape architect Megan Wraight and renowned artist Lisa Reihana, acknowledging that this space was once the area's historic water's edge.
On the vertical, rather than the horizontal, Janine Williams' (Ngāti Paoa and Ngāti Whātua ki Kaipara) concrete rata vines climb the precast panels of 10 Madden St, symbolising the growing together of the mana whenua and the Wynyard Quarter developers.
Our meander from west to east takes us past our hotel, the Travelodge Wynyard Quarter, and through the adjoining public spaces of Urunga Plaza - look out for the four 9m-tall totara pou whenua - and Karanga Plaza, with its Tidal Steps and the Wynyard Crossing lifting bridge, giving access to Viaduct Harbour.
Our dinner cruise is with Explore Auckland, aboard their 15m monohull single-masted yacht Courageous. LED lights around the Viaduct pulse red; the Sky Tower is purple; the sunset sky turns from pink to apricot as skipper Jessie and his crewmate Shontelle settle the eight of us into the cockpit, and steer us out onto the Waitematā. Twinkling directly above the tip of the mast is the Southern Cross, as we pause mid-harbour to raise the mainsail. The engine stops and we are under sail with a whisper of a southerly breeze and an outgoing tide.
The black sea is a perfect mirror reflecting the city lightscape, and our slow progress westwards allows plenty of time to enjoy the neon light show on the looming Harbour Bridge. While Shontelle hands round the drinks and canapes, Jessie invites someone to take the helm.
Venus and Mars are bright beacons above the North Shore as our volunteer helmsman points Courageous towards the middle of the Harbour Bridge's central span. The rumble of the traffic is clear overhead, but as we stop near the Chelsea sugar refinery and go below deck for dinner, I can also hear the call of a ruru from somewhere in the Birkenhead bush.
The saloon booths are cosy, and dinner is delicious, but everyone is keen to get back on deck for the return trip.
The breeze has freshened: Shontelle sets the jib as the mainsail fills and we head southeast, toward the cranes and floodlights of the Fergusson Container Terminal. The helm is offered again, so I stand up and grasp the cold steel wheel, my first time in control of a sailboat.
My course marker is a bright red light on a hill somewhere in Devonport. The wheel is responsive to a light touch, but it's easy to overcompensate: I have already turned too far to the left (or the right) before Jessie suggests a course correction. Fortunately, I avoid the ferries and water taxis plying the harbour before Jessie resumes his skippering duties.
As we sail past the Hilton hotel Shontelle furls the jib, the engine is restarted and we glide back in the Viaduct Harbour and our mooring spot right below Soul Bar. It's a great way to pass a couple of hours on the Waitematā's sparkling water after spending so much of the rest of the weekend beside it.
View of the Auckland skyline from the hotel. Travelodge Hotel Auckland Wynyard Quarter, 110 Pakenham St West, Auckland CBD. Photo / Supplied
From here, it's essential to check out newly minted Te Wānanga, the redeveloped seawall and boardwalk between Princes Wharf and Queens Wharf, where your attention is rewarded in the detailing on the railings and pavement, where clumps of submerged mussel ropes filter the seawater and where pōhutukawa shelter and shade the seating.
But on Sunday afternoon, we're drawn back to the heart of Wynyard Quarter, to the water's edge once more, for a cold drink and some people-watching at North Wharf. The family-friendly promenade is heaving with prams, pedestrians and puppies. The whole of Auckland, it seems, is also on staycation.
DETAILS Travelodge Wynyard Quarter has rates starting from $203 per night. travelodge.com.au
Explore Auckland's 2.5-hour harbour dinner cruises depart at 6pm Thursdays to Sundays and are priced from $145 per adult/$99 per child (5-15 years). exploregroup.co.nz
For more New Zealand travel ideas and inspiration, go to newzealand.com
