journalism

The novelist and screenwriter Anthony Horowitz explores the art, wine and wilderness of Auckland, New Zealand.

At first, I wasn’t sure whether to recommend Auckland as a holiday destination. For a start, it will take you 25 hours to get there and even if you travel, as I did, on a double-decker Qantas Airbus with the whole of the top floor given over to business class (very comfortable, and the best airline food) you’ll still arrive feeling as if you have just been exhumed.

Nor can Auckland be described as beautiful. It’s one of the least homogenous cities I’ve visited, a patchwork of architectural styles: colonial, modern, gaudy, shabby, occasionally chic and resolutely old-fashioned. The awnings over the pavements and the half-empty convenience stores hark back to the Fifties and the main shopping drag, Queen Street , is on the edge of seedy. Even the harbour, with ferries offering excursions to the outlying islands, whale-watching and across to the Edwardian town of Devonport , feels like a missed opportunity. The high-rises, including the iconic Sky Tower , somehow fail to impress. It’s as if they can’t be bothered to try.

I came as a guest of the Auckland Writers’ Festival – and let me say at once that visiting an international literary festival is the greatest perk of writing a successful novel. You travel the world. You meet other writers. People keep telling you how much they like you. What’s not to enjoy? One day someone will write a guide to the best festivals, but I’d put Auckland up there with Dubai, Sydney, Toronto and Jaipur. Even in this sparsely populated country, the festival sells an astonishing 50,000 tickets, which gives you an idea of the enthusiasm with which writers are received. I spoke to audiences a thousand-strong in the Aotea Centre . And the longer I spent in Auckland, the more I found myself discovering its many charms.

^{Maori art in the Auckland War Memorial Museum (Alamy)}

Take the Auckland Art Gallery, for example. With the rain bucketing down (this was May, after all) I wandered in for shelter, not expecting to see anything of interest. I found myself in a large, welcoming space – a credit to a city with just 1.5 million people. It was filled with good work, classic and modern. And on the top floor I discovered an astonishing installation. An artist called Lisa Reihana spent six years animating one of those 19th-century imperialist paintings – soldiers, settlers and natives – turning it into something that resembled a Victorian diorama with the camera slowly panning across a fantasy landscape. I understand it’s coming to London and I urge you to see it.

There’s a huge pleasure to be had in discovering museums – not just going because of some time-ticketed exhibition. This was my experience at the Auckland War Memorial Museum , an impressive neo-classical mausoleum high up in a lovely park known as the Domain . I could have spent a day here, but I only had time for the Maori court with its reconstructed ancestral meeting house dating from 1878 – its pillars and gateways, war canoes and dozens of combs, pipes and godsticks all beautifully carved. The intricacy and spirituality of Maori craftsmanship was revelatory.

And then there was the food and drink. I lost count of the fabulous meals I ate in Auckland. Try Cibo , the O’Connell Street Bistro and Depot , underneath the Sky Tower. Don’t leave without trying the local Mahurangi oysters. I’ve never tasted better.

As I walked the streets, I began to see that they were jammed with attractive bars and cafés. It was just a case of winkling them out . The area around Vulcan Lane is the place to go. The best shops are there, too. I stayed at the Langham Hotel, incidentally. It was a comfortable, friendly place although you may find the Hilton, down on the waterfront, has better views.

^{The cityscape of Auckland (Fotolia/AP)}

The one downside of literary festivals is how little you get to see. To fly all this way and barely set foot out of Auckland was ludicrous. But I did manage a couple of excursions, bunking off one afternoon and taking the ferry to Waiheke Island . The 35-minute boat ride is a pleasure and as you slip into a natural harbour with plantation-style houses, you feel you are entering a retreat from the real world.

I visited Stonyridge Vineyard – another surprise. Here you can have lunch on its terrace, with wonderful views of the Onetangi Valley. Large dogs lope around the olive groves and there are huge eucalyptus trees, tropical palms and, of course, row upon row of vines, turning red and gold in the autumn sun. I spent a couple of hours with the bon vivant owner, Stephen White. We shared a bottle of his excellent Fallen Angel Sauvignon Blanc and then a superb Larose Cabernet but I’m afraid after that I remember nothing more.

My other expedition was more bracing, travelling with a guide for a day’s hiking in the Waitakere Ranges on the southern end of the island. As I got out of the car, the rain was lashing down and the wind almost knocked me off my feet. I quietly assumed the hike would be off… but not a bit of it. My guide, Shaun Collins, organises extreme races, including the Hillary Challenge, a 50-mile run. He led me up a wild, precipitous path through sub-tropical rain forest and on to a dizzying ridgeline, high above the Manukau Harbour with steel-grey water surging into the Tasman Sea .

^{Anthony Horowitz hiking in the Waitakere Ranges}

I was very much the Hobbit to his Orc but I managed to keep up with him. By the time we reached Nahuna Point , with views down to the beaches where The Piano was filmed, I was exhausted and exhilarated. This was the real New Zealand… epic and unspoiled and it was hard to believe we were only an hour’s drive from Auckland. Later, we had lunch at a charming wooden shack, the Huia Foodstore , down by the water’s edge. Once again I found myself in a world that was somehow separated from modern times.

By the end of my time there, I realised that I liked Auckland very much indeed. But it was time to leave – for the Sydney Literary Festival, due to begin a day later. I will report again from there soon.