Sunday was my day to explore Auckland. I caught a mid-morning ferry to the CBD . . .

. . . and made my way to the Auckland Art Gallery, which with its striking wooden awning is my certainly favourite building in Auckland so far.

The gallery has an impressive collection of Maori art . . .

. . . and a surprisingly good temporary exhibition on Danish design. Even after visiting Copenhagen’s Design Museum and reading all those design magazines, this was the best presentation I’ve seen in terms of situating the designs I know so well into an art-historical context.

I also appreciated the temporary exhibit on Louise Henderson’s work. She’s a French-Kiwi artist and I wasn’t familiar with her work, but she apparently had a massive career and I found the June panel (midwinter) in her Twelve Months series terrifying.

From midwinter paintings back into midsummer gardens . . .

. . . on my way to the Auckland Museum . . .

. . . where I particularly enjoyed the Natural History wing. Kiwis are adorable and I want to see one in real life!

When the museum closed for the day, I walked across town to the Ponsonby neighbourhood, which is allegedly where all the cool kids hang out these days. As it turned out, it was about as deserted as the rest of the city. But the shops looked fun and the cheeky public service announcement posters seemed to reflect both a sense of humour and the types of activities people might get up to after a night of partying in the many clubs and bars . . .

Ponsonby Central had a few restaurants that were open and I settle down at the chef’s counter at Blue Breeze Inn.

The pork belly buns . . .

. . . and stir fried fish . . .

. . . we’re delicious but the service quite poor, so I didn’t linger. Back to Devonport for an early night.