Travelers come to New Zealand for nature, in search for that amazing landscape of the Lord of the Rings. For me, New Zealand was a discovery of cafes, of a cafe culture unique to this land. I spent a great deal of time in cafes when I travel, because it's a great place to observe people safely. What they drink and how they drink it, they way the interact with the waitress, it tells me much about their culture.
So, here I am in Auckland on Ponsonby road, a long tretch of a road full of cafes and restaurants, the stronghold of Auckland's gay zone. What i love about this road is its elevation, it stands on top of a hill, one of the many in Auckland, and overlooks the sea and the down town area. It's like you are above all, as if you are connecting directly to the sky, a step closer to the sky. There is always light in this road, even on the most grey days.
Because it's a long road it has several distinct pockets of cafes that have their distict character, attracting diferrent clientele and at different times of the day.
At the one end is the Three Lamps Area, the cosier part of the road, with small cafes and other shops with a neighbourhood feeling to it. People tend to know each other here. If you go to Atlas cafe for example early in the morning you will see all the regulars ordering their breakfast, at times not even having to say what they want, their eating habbits known already. After a few visits, my name was noted down and all subsequent orders were put down under my name! That's what I call service! It's a tiny cafe, run mostly by women and young female students who seem to be part of the scene. Their coffee and teas are great and the food superb. They do gluten free toast too which is fantastic for me. I read my paper there in the morning. That's a the beauty of New Zealand cafes, free papers to accompany your morning coffee.
A bit furter up in the same area is another cafe, Cezzane's, an institution by itself, scruffy and with the walls painted with some scenes from the great 18th Italian painters adding a real character to it. It's open when all other cafes are closed on holidays and later hours and the food comes in quantity, although not always sure about the quality. The tea comes in bags and the coffee is not always great but i guess people come here because of it's character, location, history, and non fussy look, and also for convenience.
My other favourite cafe is well further down the road, the One 2 One cafe. I like it because it reminds me something of the Parisian cafes. It catches the afternoon sun, so you can sit outside after a day's work and enjoy the end of the day life of this part of the town. The food is not all that great, the teas are good and the coffee comes in bowls which remind me France. The cafe has a nice back yard which seems to attract parents with young kids. It's location, the style and character more than the food and the coffee gets me here.
You can continue on a long journey through cafes here. I often spend my Saturday morning doing a cafe (not pub) crawling, breakfast, lunch, afternoon tea, slowing moving from one to another, whilst reading my papers, observing people, listening to my inner silence whilst surrounded my outer noise.
Yes, if a visitor to Auckland, spend a day here. You can learn a lot about urban kiwis by just looking at them in cafes. You will notice for instance that Kiwis are early birds, all cafes are super busy in the mornings, even during the weekend. By early afternoon most cafes are deserted, they are mostly family people and they love spending most of their free time in nature, in their baches outside Auckland. So, if you want to catch them in action, go early!
