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Ponsonby
What would a fashion district look like if it was built around insight instead of impulse? The answer is Ponsonby.
Welcome to Auckland’s showcase of quality fashion, with the country’s largest selection of New Zealand designers, from funky up-and-comers to the timeless elegance of major fashion houses. You’re not shopping for clothes - you’re piecing together your own personal story, as expressed through New Zealand’s gurus of fabric, fit and style.
Your next, best look? This is where you'll find it.
We’re a party-in-your-mouth of dining options, from bustling street-food through to contemporary steak-houses.
Oh and never fear, we’ve got the city’s most diverse selection of vegan, raw food, gluten-free and paleo options, too. In fact, to stroll Ponsonby Road is to browse the largest selection of top-rated restaurants in the country, all vying for your tastebuds. And with so many leading eateries, this is where you’ll find innovative new contenders setting up shop to take on the establishment.
The knives are sharp, the competition fierce, and the jostling for your foodie affection has never been more delicious.
Whether it’s dancing to live music, watching the famous show-ponying of Auckland’s cocktaliers, or enjoying our kaleidoscopic street life, the layout of bars along the city ridgeline makes Ponsonby’s bar scene the ultimate in strollable adventures.
From intimate, sun-dappled courtyard bars to the brash, 24-7 nightclubs where anything can happen, Ponsonby immerses you in the ebb and flow of good people having a great time.
Auckland’s most dynamic bar scene bar none.
Nowadays, Ponsonby is New Zealand’s most LGBTQ+ friendly urban village, where innovative businesses hum inside of beautifully-restored Victorian heritage buildings.
But our past reveals a less evolved picture. Awaiting those who download our self-guided heritage walks is the tumultuous history of a suburb that started life as a slum, barely surviving the 1918 influenza epidemic. Hear about the clandestine ceremonies and rituals of the curiously named Royal Antediluvian Order of Buffaloes, re-imagine a dance hall from the 1860s that became a disastrous skating rink - and visit the sites of illegal grog houses that are now, with delicious irony, some of Ponsonby’s most elite dining establishments
This maze of enticing sights and smells is the neighborhood dining and shopping precinct, bustling with chefs, beard barbers, fashion merchants, fishmongers, salami artisans, tech-heads, baristas and more, all passionate about their craft.
With retail at the front, restaurants, and cafes inside and alfresco street food eateries running along ‘the lane’ - Ponsonby Central throngs with a charming, market-style exuberance.
There’s one in every city! That exciting, electric place where old and new money lock velvet antlers and the food & fashion explode with vibrant re-invention. Welcome to the ‘always-on’ mashup of cheap eats, posh nosh, in-your-face art and innovative business that famously banned McDonalds - where Coco the Pomeranian turns looks, haute couture turns heads, and over a hundred bars, restaurants, and cafés turntables to create the kaleidoscopic heart of Auckland that is I-♥️-Ponsonby.