Auckland in Winter

Winter in Auckland is cold, and it rains often. Most of our houses aren’t built for it either — anyone who’s spent a July evening in a poorly insulated villa knows exactly what I mean.

But it gets a bad rap it hasn’t earned. This is the season the cosy rooms come into their own: libraries with fireplaces, long roast lunches, the low-lit wine bars, the subterranean places you’d walk straight past in summer. Mingle nights at the museum. The hot pools making sense. Auckland in winter isn’t summer with worse weather — it’s a different city, and a quieter one.

This page is the winter we’d recommend to friends: vetted picks and honest caveats.