Wondering how to spend your days this weekend? Why not pay Commercial Bay a visit? At this sprawling downtown precinct, cultural events, exceptional shopping and unparalleled dining experiences are all a mere hop, skip and jump from one another, meaning that you could start your day at a stunning exhibition before spending a few hours perusing through various luxury fashion boutiques (and maybe picking up some beautiful new winter cashmere) before finally ending your day at one of Auckland’s best restaurants. Here, we round up five very compelling reasons to pay Commercial Bay a visit right now.
Experience Hamish Coleman’s new exhibition Wax and Wane at Season
Known to explore portraiture’s relationship with abstraction in his work, Wellington-based painter Hamish Coleman has taken over the beautiful Season gallery in Commercial Bay with an exhibition, Wax and Wane. Here, Coleman’s new works emphasise the interplay between brightness and obscurity, light and shadow and see the artist draw on traditions of painting and lens-based art to produce an utterly exquisite, almost haunting series that ponders the complex relationships between lived experience, memory, and imagination. Wax and Wane is on now until the 17th of June, and is one exhibition you don’t want to miss.
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Shop Elle & Riley’s new collection
What better time of year than right now to pick up some new cashmere pieces to stand you in good stead for the chilly season ahead? Luckily, local purveyors of exceptional, luxurious cashmere Elle & Riley have an exquisite new collection that has recently landed in its Commercial Bay store, offering everything we need for padding out our winter wardrobes. From simple layering pieces to chunky knitwear and all of it in a colour palette of warm neutrals with a few soft pops of colour (a light blue here, a baby pink there), there really is something to suit everyone.
Drop into Doe Donuts’ cute new spot
If you haven’t already, pay Commercial Bay’s foodie hub, Harbour Eats, a visit this weekend and discover Doe Donuts’ very cute new outpost. Found at the entrance to Harbour Eats, this kiosk-style shop fits the Doe Donuts vision perfectly, with a hot-pink-and-white awning that feels almost Barbie-like, it’s cutesy, cool, and, most importantly, hard to miss. Here, you can indulge in all of Doe’s seriously delicious doughnut flavours, like its signature vanilla glazes and cinnamon sugars, as well as the far more decadent, ever-changing filled doughnuts, which are individually handmade daily and are available from lunchtime.
Book a table at Origine and take in the beauty of Auckland Harbour
Park up at one of the tables in Origine’s stunning dining room and indulge in a delicious lunch or dinner while taking in some of the best views of the Waitematā Harbour in the city. With a comprehensive menu of mouthwatering French fare, Origine truly has something for everyone. That said, we think that one should never pass up the chance to try something authentically French while dining here (after all, that is the core culinary philosophy at the heart of this restaurant). Origine’s Vol-au-vents starter is one such dish. It sees tasty little delicate pastry bites filled with fresh mushrooms and topped with juicy Burgundian snails, then finished off with the crème de la crème of French cheeses, an 18-month-aged Comté. Delicious.
Pick up some premium mānuka honey at Aotea
While the immune-boosting and anti-bacterial benefits of high-quality mānuka honey are widely known, not all iterations are created equal. One of our favourite places at which to stock up on this winter essential is Aotea, with a beautiful shop in Commercial Bay that sells jars of its 125+, 300+ and 500+ MGO mānuka honey, all of which has been meticulously cultivated and left raw and untreated (as nature intended) so that we can reap the full benefits. Such fans are we of this product, in fact, that we recently included Aotea’s mānuka honey as one of our crucial products for staying healthy through winter. As a bonus, this season’s batch of honey can be shopped with a 20% discount at Aotea’s concept store and online.
