When I first visited Auckland, New Zealand with my Mom in 2023 I thought, “My Partner would love this city”. It’s gorgeous, close to nature and filled with unique Mom and Pop coffee shops.
In 2025 after my Partner asked that we “meet in the middle” while I was in Japan and he was in New York, we met in Auckland and stayed for 6 weeks. I’m happy to report that he loved it for the reasons I suspected he would.
I’m also happy that I got to live in the city that I previously had only experienced for a handful of days during that 2023 trip with my Mom. So let’s dive into everything Auckland!
Climate
When searching for our Airbnb for our in Auckland I applied my usual filters, which always include air conditioning. However, I was getting some strange results – barely any Airbnbs met my criteria, which hasn’t happened before.
This led me down a rabbit hole where I discovered that few residences in Auckland have AC and according to Kiwis in forums, it’s because they don’t need it. We were arriving in early February and leaving in late March, which is almost the height of summer in the Southern Hemisphere.
I was a bit concerned that not having AC would be an issue, but the downtown Airbnb I really liked and wanted to book didn’t have it. So I trusted the Kiwi forums and booked it anyway – and I was pleasantly surprised with the result ๐ .
It was indeed summer in Auckland when we lived there, but we never had a problem not having AC. Our apartment had huge windows and fans that we set up to cool the place down at night, which kept it a pleasant temperature.
Luckily despite being downtown, it wasn’t very loud when we kept the windows open and I didn’t have an issue with something I took for granted – screens ๐ . Our apartment didn’t have window screens, which I’ve been told by Kiwi friends is normal to not have in Auckland.
However, growing up in Georgia and in the US in general, I’ve always had window screens to keep out bugs, particularly mosquitos which will eat you alive in Georgia. I was pleasantly surprised that that didn’t happen in Auckland.
Shockingly in those 6 weeks, despite having the windows open almost the entire time, I never saw a mosquito in our house. As for other bugs, I only saw 1 fly come in and it quickly flew back out. So basically Auckland had the least amount of bugs I’ve ever encountered outside Iceland and at least when I visited, it was fine to live in without AC.
Time Zone
Time zones when I’m far from home can be difficult to quickly translate in my head, but when we were in Auckland in February 2025, my Partner came up with an easy way to remember how to know the time in NYC. It was +6 hours and minus a day so for example if it was 12pm on Wednesday in Auckland it’s 6pm Tuesday in NYC. Easy!
Walkability
Being a pedestrian in Auckland was a complete joy. There were abundant and wide sidewalks, every intersection had crosswalk signs and they have one of my favorite pedestrian treats – the ability to walk diagonally across intersections when all directions of the crosswalk go green at the same time.
I love that so much ๐ . I was able to comfortably and safely walk everywhere in Auckland and had a great time doing it. Cars didn’t try to intentionally kill me like in the US and there was always an abundance of kind fellow pedestrians going about their day.
Transit
The only experiences I had with transit in Auckland’s was Uber. Auckland does have a train and bus system, but I love walking so much that I never used them. And I only used Uber to go to/from the airport and to/from our bioluminescence tour that was one town over.
The Ubers in Auckland were super fast in my experience. I would order one and it would arrive in literally one minute, so I always had to be on my toes and ready to walk out the door.
Nature
New Zealand is a nature lover’s paradise and I was excited to learn that Auckland, despite being the country’s most populous city, is the same. Auckland has more than 4,000 parks and reserves within its city limits.
I especially enjoyed watching baby sheep walk around Cornwall Park during my visit in 2023:
During my 2025 visit, nature highlights included that bioluminescence tour I linked to above and visiting Tiritiri Matangi Island.
There were parks, trees and green spaces absolutely everywhere in Auckland and that along with all of the beautiful harbors made Auckland one of my favorite nature-filled cities. And if you go a little outside of Auckland it’s even more beautiful.
Money
When I visited in early 2025 $1 New Zealand Dollar (NZD) = $0.57 USD so basically everything was half of the listed price if you’re converting into USD. As for currency, everywhere I went accept credit cards.
However, on the transaction screen, there was always a charge for the item and then an extra credit card charge you have to accept before paying. I think this is an interesting approach to having the customer pay the credit card company’s fees. It made me more aware of what credit card companies are charging compared to when that is baked into the price like in the US.
Curiously, despite this, I never saw someone paying in cash during my stay. But if you’re looking to save a little bit of money, you might want to carry cash and use that in New Zealand instead of paying the credit card fees on top of an item’s purchase prices.
Food
Groceries
This main grocery store I used in Auckland was called Countdown Metro, which is a subsidiary of the Australia grocery store chain Woolworths. This is where I learned that what I call a pepper, they call a “Capsicum.” The more you know ๐ .
I was very impressed with the prices at these stores and how many affordably priced fresh items they offered. For example, they sold a 1.5L of seltzer for $0.75 USD and a loaf of fresh baked bread for $2 USD.
These grocery stores had self-checkout with multiple lines – one is a credit card only line and the other is for cash or credit card. Using these self-checkout machines proved to require some finesse.
For example, even if you brought your own bags like we did, we learned not to press the “brought our own bag” option when prompted at the beginning of the transaction because then the machine stops everything and requires an attendant to confirm that you have your own bags.
Instead we just didn’t press that button, scanned all of our items and then said we were buying 0 bags. That made this interaction a lot faster.
We also had to make sure we moved everything we were scanning to the other side of the scanner and didn’t start putting items into bags because then the scanner thought we didn’t place an item we scanned and it becomes a whole thing that also required a flashing light and an attendant ๐ .
Instead we would scan everything, pay and then put everything into our bags. Also just a heads up that to purchase alcohol, an attendant does need to come over to check your ID (I used my US Passport) and enter your date of birth.
Restaurants
Tipping
In my experience tipping wasn’t a thing in New Zealand. Restaurant bills often included service charges, but there wasn’t an option I saw to provide money in addition to that.
Takeout
Interestingly, I asked for a takeout container at one restaurant and they told me I had to pay for it and that it cost $0.50 NZD ($0.29 USD) – alrighty then ๐ . I haven’t heard of that before and found it an interesting idea.
The Food Scene
The food in Auckland is wonderful and varied. We obviously enjoyed all the coffee shops that I had noticed during my first visit and kept going back to one in particular that became our favorite spot:
I also became obsessed with a food I hadn’t know existed: a Croffle!
New Zealand being an island also has some delicious seafood, which we enjoyed.
One unexpected part of the Auckland food scene was the abundance of different small ice cream shops. They were delicious across the board, but this was my favorite:
Language
New Zealand uses the written indigenous Mฤori language everywhere, often without translation, which I thought was surprising and awesome. Here are some common words and phrases:
Aotearoa: New Zealand (meaning “land of the long white cloud”)
Kia Ora: Hello
Ka Kite: Goodbye
Nau Mai, Haere Mai: Welcome
I also learned some NZ slang and unique words:
Togs: Swimwear
Green Capsicum: Green pepper (which I mentioned above)
Cost
I like to base estimates on solid facts and that’s why I began my retirement calculations by assuming I would continue spending the same amount that I did during my awesome HCOL life in Seattle, which cost $18,000 a year. So let’s see how costs in Auckland and Seattle compare:
Auckland was less expensive to live in than I expected. Since it was an island, I thought that food in particular would be quite expensive along with housing, but that wasn’t the case in my experience.
Here were my monthly costs while living in Auckland:
Lodging
Cost: $2,284.23/month
As I mentioned above, I was surprised by this relatively low price for a beautiful downtown apartment. Our host was also lovely and mentioned that she rents multiple apartments in the city for a discount if we return. Nice ๐ .
Food
Grocery Cost: $197.77/month
As I mentioned, groceries were very affordable in New Zealand and this represented about an average monthly cost of groceries for me. I mostly eat vegetables and meat since I usually eat keto.
Restaurant Cost: $186.27/month
I went wild eating all that Auckland had to offer and yet, I didn’t break the bank. Eating out in that city wasn’t wildly expensive surprisingly.
Transit
Cost: $98.16/month
This included my ride share to and from the airport, my ride share to/from our bioluminescence tour and a roundtrip ferry ride to the nearby Davenport.
Entertainment
Cost: $122.63/month
This included my roundtrip tickets and tour guide fee for Tiritiri Matangi Island, the cost for the Bioluminescence Tour, a movie rental, a video game and a monthly streaming subscription.
Entertaining myself in Auckland was effortless. Just walking the streets of the city was fascinating and there are a lot of wonderful, free attractions right in the city, such as the Art Gallery:
Conclusion
And that was my experience living in Auckland, New Zealand! I had a wonderful time escaping winter in Japan and experiencing summer in the Southern Hemisphere.
I suspected that I would enjoy spending a longer amount of time in Auckland and I was very happy to be correct. The city is beautiful and the surrounding islands are even more so. The food is delicious, the people are kind and I can’t wait to go back ๐ .
If you’re interested in my other Slow Travel Reviews, they’re all here:
International
- Slow Travel Review: Phuket, Thailand โ The Land Of Sea & Food
- Slow Travel Review: Montrรฉal, Canada – The Land Of Poutine, Bagels & Acrobatics
- Slow Travel Review: Mรฉrida, Mรฉxico โ The Land Of Color & Nature
- Slow Travel Review: Puerto Vallarta, Mรฉxico – The Land Of Beaches & Birds
- Slow Travel Review: San Josรฉ, Costa Rica – The Land Of Pura Vida
- Slow Travel Review: Buenos Aires, Argentina – The Land Of Nature & Architecture
- Slow Travel Review: Amsterdam, The Netherlands – The Land Of Canals and Bikes
USA
- Slow Travel Review: Portland, Maine, USA – The Land Of Deliciousness
- Slow Travel Review: Catskill, New York, USA โ The Land Of Mountains
- Slow Travel Review: Santa Fe, New Mexico, USA โ The Land Of Chili Peppers
- Slow Travel Review: Decatur, Georgia, USA โ The Land Of Flowers & Food
- Slow Travel Review: Seattle, WA, USA – The Land Of Flowers, Sea And Mountains
- Slow Travel Review: Sacramento, CA, USA: The Land Of Flowers & Sunshine
- Slow Travel Review: Chicago, IL, USA: The Land Of Pizza & Waterways
- Slow Travel Review: Troy, NY – The Land Of Small City Charm
Auckland is beautiful city indeed. Another popular kiwi supermarket experience is Pak n Save. Itโs New Zealandโs version of Costco but in a supermarket form. The prices are much better than Countdown. Visiting from Australia we thought that cost of food and dining out was much higher compared to Australia. I guess prices are always relative to comparison city.
Good to know! And yeah costs are totally relative – that’s why I try to show examples of my comparison city of Seattle, which my brain still tells me is very cheap because it’s not NYC.
Re: screens! The apartments I had in Portland and Oakland didn’t have screens and it was almost never a problem. ONE time when I lived in Oakland a hummingbird flew into my apartment and couldn’t figure out how to leave! I opened ALL the windows, put very bright objects on the windowsills (to attract it down from the ceiling to the open window), and left. It was gone when I came back ๐
It’s interesting that rent is supposed to be so much less than Seattle – maybe it’s just home-ownership that is a problem, but I’ve been reading about big problems with lack of affordable housing in NZ for quite a few years now.
I visited there for just a few days (there was a bonkers round-trip flight sale for $400 once upon a time) but I really liked it and would love to go back and spend a lot more time.
Oh that’s interesting! I’ve been to both of those places and the houses I stayed in had screens. I’m glad to hear it would have been fine if they hadn’t though!
Yeah it’s also possible it’s a stagnant wages issue, but I expected it to be a lot more expensive for a tourist than it was. And oooh a RT flight for $400 sounds wild. I’m glad you liked it.
Iโve been wanting to visit since your first post about it! Still trying to find a deal to out there from NYC haha
Haha nice!
No bugs? Already love that city.
Lol – same.
Did you need to pay for entry to New Zealand to stay for that long?
No – most countries let US citizens stay for up to 3 months.
New Zealand looks surprisingly affordable! I also would’ve expected that it would be uber-expensive.
The jet lag from being 18 hours out of sync must be fierce. Definitely sounds like somewhere you’d need to go for at least a few weeks to make the recovery period worthwhile.
Haha same ๐ . And yeah – the jet lag is usually hardcore when I visit that part of the world so I build in several days of sleeping/doing nothing to make sure I catch up quickly. That’s also why we usually go over there for at least a month to make it worth it.