While Auckland isn’t New Zealand’s capital city, it is the largest with a population of just over one million people. Auckland has a great reputation throughout New Zealand, so long as you don’t leave … well, Auckland. Venture too far outside of the city, and it becomes overly apparent that Auckland and Aucklanders have a less than perfect reputation with New Zealand’s other three million people.
Chances are though, if you’re visiting New Zealand, you’ll spend at least a couple of nights in Auckland – and that’s all you’ll need. Your visit to New Zealand should include adventure sports, hiking, spectacular landscapes, and friendly people. And the best of these are found outside of the city.
Here are some budget tips for your time in the City of Sails.
One thing I found terribly frustrating after my arrival to New Zealand was the lack of free, wireless internet. The concept of going to a coffee shop, buying a coffee, and enjoying free access to the internet just doesn’t exist yet in this country – not even in a big city such as Auckland. The vast majority of WiFi hotspots you find are pay as you go. To further confuse matters, they are pay as you go based on time or data usage. Uploading photos to Facebook, using Skype, or streaming movies will drain your usage in minutes.
If you need the internet in Auckland, these are your best bets.
- Esquires Coffee House has a number of locations around the city. Most of these will give you an hour of internet usage with the purchase of a coffee. While they limit you to 100mbs of usage, it’s certainly a better setup than most other coffee shops. Especially Starbucks.
- The Gloria Jeans Coffee house at 360 Queen Street offers an even better deal. Purchase a coffee and they’ll provide you with the password to their private wireless network. No time restrictions. No usage restrictions. It’s a great place to Skype home.
- Auckland’s Central City Library (and most libraries in New Zealand) at 46 Lorne Street (just off of Queen Street) offers free and unlimited wireless.
Just like any other city, you can expect to pay more for food, beer, accommodation, and the like in Auckland. If you’re after a cheap eat, you can’t miss Auckland’s Food Alley at 9 – 11 Albert Street.
Featuring about 15 different kitchens on two levels and specializing in food from throughout Asia, this food court is a must see for your time in the city. You’ll find food from Thailand, China, India, Turkey, Korea, Japan, Vietnam, and more. Hungry backpacker sized portions are served up for less than $15. Go over the lunch hour when the place is in full swing to fully appreciate the madness. With a couple licensed bars, you may end up spending the afternoon.
There are plenty of things to do in Auckland’s city center to keep you busy. But if you’re after a quick, cheap, day-trip outside of the city, consider heading to Devonport on Auckland’s North Shore. A picturesque, maritime suburb, Devonport feels more like a small village. With plenty of free things to do, it’s a great day trip for a budget traveler. I recommend heading up North Head and Mount Victoria. Both of these small hills provide unbeatable views of downtown Auckland, the sea, and the surrounding islands.
To get to Devonport, you’ll need to catch a Fullers Ferry from the ferry terminal at the bottom of Queen Street. The ride takes about twenty minutes and will cost you $10 return. North Head and Mount Victoria are within a 30 minutes walk from the ferry terminal – as are a couple of white sand beaches. After a day of walking around Devonport, you’ll be ready for a pint. Swing into the Masonic Tavern and enjoy one of their 14 different beers, cheap food, and sea views.
I don’t have any hostel recommendations for your time in Auckland. However, I can encourage you to avoid the Base ACB hostel on Queen street. Run down, smelly, and poorly run, this hostel is every non-travelers view of what a hostel is. Avoid it, and instead check out some of the independently owned hostels in the neighborhoods surrounding Auckland’s city center.
Have you traveled to Auckland? Please add your budget travel tips to the comments section below!
Backpacking Matt 
When Auckland friends invited me to the Orbit Revolving Restaurant on top of the SkyTower in the central business district, I thought we might be in for a bit of a rip off. These type of places so often are.
However, the views were incredible and the food quite good. Best of all, bungee jumpers fall outside your windows!
Don, I opted not to head up the SkyTower. I couldn’t bring myself to pay the $30 for a view (which you can get in Devonport for free!).
Though it was pretty crazy to watch the bungee jumpers from the street … I can only imagine watching it over a NZ lamb chop!
Fabulous, filing these tips away for the future. I never had to be so conscious of finding internet before I had this blasted blog!
Steph, It is amazing how connected we need to be! Glad you’re taking notes!
Auckland Museum: Free to $5 (just a donation)
BBH hostels in NZ are the way to go! Most of the independent hostels are listed in there.
Dustin, I missed the Auckland Museum, though I heard it is well worth a visit (especially for the price!). I was preoccupied for my last days in Auckland trying to finalize up the purchase of my campervan. Time well spent!
I’m really glad you’re all finding the post useful!
Great post Matt, Gloria Jeans was a life saver for me when I was in Australia – I loved the free wifi and spent many hours in there over the course of my trip Skyping home! 🙂 Great Auckland tips too – I am hoping to make it there in the next couple of years!
This post is SO helpful — I’m headed Down Under for two months and will be spending a little time in Auckland. This is a fantastic budget resource.
Matt, at Orbit, you transcend the SkyTower entrance fee by paying a minimum amount for your meal. That helps make it worthwhile.
Admittedly, I was living large because the USD was extraordinarily strong against the NZD in late 2008, in marked contrast to earlier that year in London, where I crawled in hunger from Upper Crust to Upper Crust sandwich shop seeking an affordable morsel.
love the auckland museum! great value for price, plus a great intro to the country.
love orbit! went for my farwell lunch at my job, so much fun even considering i had been up in the tower loads of times. but as view towers go, i’d save my dollars for the bridge climb in sydney:-).
love devonport. one of my non-dreams is to open a backpackers over there.
i guess i really liked akl more then i let on sometimes:-).
i loved stepping away from the internet in NZ. as americans, we are too hung up on expecting it to be free and everywhere. it was there if i really needed it, but it was a splurge more then a necessity. every minute counted, so time wasn’t wasted in fronted the screen when there was a beautiful country to enjoy!
I have a feeling that I’ll be taking a tour of libraries & coffee shops across the world looking for free wifi. Well, I suppose it’s not unlike visiting grocery stores in foreign countries.
hey
great tips! just arrived in auckland this morning..was looking for some free wifi….i was shocked when my hostel told me they charge for wifi…just never experienced this in 8 months’ of travel in south america..the Bank of New Zealand in Queen Street has free internet and also free wifi (you just go in and ask for a code for the wifi). They have nice comfortable sofas to sit in while you surf the net and it’s a nice, calm place to do some trip research…Angie
@Angie Thanks for the comment — good to know the Bank of NZ offers free WIFi. Enjoy NZ – I miss it very much!
food alley is a great gem. alot of aucklanders dont know about it aswell
Went to Mount Eden Volcano summit the other day. Pretty great view of Auckland and the surrounding suburbs. Not to mention the old volcano. And it was 4km from Queen Street downtown.
Great views from Mt Eden!
Super helpful blog post! I am heading to New Zealand December 2016 and I will be using most of the advice from this entry. Thank you so much!
I got so much from this write up, Matt! Auckland isn’t exactly an inexpensive place to visit, but these certainly made it more affordable and help travelers save lots!