Mission Bay.  A 15 minute bus ride from downtown to a white sand beach.  A must do, and a super easy one, if you’re ever in Auckland. Not a bad view, right?

It’s a pretty long stretch of beach, so no worries about finding a spot to lay down the towel.  On the west end and in the middle was pretty crowded, but if you walk to the east end you’ll find the beach volleyball set-up and lots of open sand.  It was a great spot. Nice and quiet plus we could watch the impressive volleyball being played.

We flirted with a more sporty visit since there are options to rent bikes or rollerblades, but the basking in the sand was more appealing.  We quickly realized we would enjoy it even more if we weren’t in jeans and sneakers.  Flips flips (“thongs” here) are on the next shopping list.

There are also restaurants, bars, and shops that line the street, Tamaki Drive, that runs behind the beach.  We had a drink overlooking the water at the 2nd story of The Attic bar and restaurant. I recommend grabbing a drink or even dinner here, the view from the balcony was as good as it gets.  

We walked up and down the block looking at menus before we decided on dinner at Bar Comida because Kevin was craving some paella.  It was good enough that we left feeling stuffed and headed home.  

Unfortunately we were too full to grab some ice cream from the Movenpick shop even though the freshly made waffle cones smelled incredible.  Another quick bus ride to the Britomart station right downtown and we hopped on the train toward home.