On Broadway (Auckland)

When Auckland’s Newmarket (above) is mentioned, it’s usually along with words like “premier shopping” or “upscale”. The stretch of Broadway between, roughly Khyber Pass Road and somewhat past Remuera Road has some of the toniest shops in all of Auckland—or, in some case, New Zealand.

Yesterday I was heading over to Newmarket, where I’d meet up with Nigel. I decided to head over early to have a bit of a look around.

I’ve said before that Auckland has NO public transport system, by which I mean a rational, sensible, affordable complete way to get around the area. In my case, my only option was two buses, a lot of walking and up to one hour 50 minutes in transit. I had to walk about half a kilometre (all uphill) to the nearest bus stop, but ended up walking a further half kilometre (also uphill) to a bigger one which was in shade and had benches to sit down. The bus ride into Auckland’s CBD ($4.30) was uneventful and got in to Victoria Street about five minute early.

I again walked about a half kilometre (all flat or downhill this time) to catch the next bus out to Newmarket ($1.60). Other bus options would have mean me leaving home earlier and arriving in Newmarket later, which seemed dumb. The ride to Newmarket was a bit harrowing (the driver loved her brakes), and road construction severely slowed progress on Khyber Pass Road. Ended up getting off the bus a few metres from Broadway—arriving on the street about one hour 45 minutes after I left the house (it would take maybe 20 minutes to drive there, depending on a number of factors).

In the nearly fourteen years I’ve lived in New Zealand, I’ve been through Newmarket many times, stopped to go to a store or two a few times, and driven over it dozens of times (the Newmarket viaduct for State Highway One goes over one end of the area, some, what, five storeys up? Probably more).

So this was my first chance to stroll down Broadway, from one end to the other. I passed little shop after little shop nearly all, apparently, expensive. I also noticed that in most cases the only people in these shops were the people who worked there, sometimes sitting around bored, sometimes tidying up, but without shoppers. This was between noon and 1pm, an people were around, just not shopping.

My first real stop was 277 Shopping Centre (pronounced “two double seven”, at left). It’s run by Westfield so, in that sense, like any other mall, only vertical. If I thought the Borders store in Aotea Square was a rabbit’s warren, this mall gives the place a run for its money. The shops were, in many cases, ones I hadn’t seen at any other mall (and included a CD store that was part of a chain that I thought had gone out of business). There was nothing remarkable about 277, really—Albany’s mall is actually nicer, probably because it’s still pretty new. 277 could use a bit of a tidy up—it wasn’t shabby at all, just looking a wee bit tired and a bit worn around the edges.

Back outside, I wandered back up Broadway and stopped in what must be one of the last Dymocks bookstores in New Zealand. I kept going until I got back to the intersection with Khyber Pass Road, and there I saw an odd bas-relief sort of sculpture (right) hidden just of the street in the entryway to a building. I have no idea what it’s about, why it’s there or who put it there (the building didn’t seem to have a name and the tenant directory provided no clues).

On to meet up with Nigel, I was a bit early so I picked up a coffee and headed up to Auckland Domain to sit under the trees (below left) for awhile to wait for him. The view across the playing fields was toward the back of the Auckland (War Memorial) Museum (below right), and kinda sorta facing home. Then, I met up with Nigel and we were away.

I’m glad I had a look around Newmarket because now I don’t have to be curious about it anymore. Can’t say I’ll be likely to head back any time soon, but at least I finally explored it. That, and I found out how close it is to the Auckland Domain—I had no idea. This will probably be useful to know at some point.