QT Auckland

As a returning New Zealander playing tourist, it was fascinating to see the transformation of Auckland’s waterfront since my days as a young travel consultant there. The grimy old mall with its sad food court is now a slick, spacious plaza with buzzy coffee roasters and covetable clothing stores. On either side, once-soulless corporate quadrants have become destinations in their own right: fashionable Commercial Bay, where Tiffany’s and Karen Walker mingle with top restaurants Ortolana and Amano, alongside glass atriums and leafy walkways; and the quiet sophistication of the new residential Wynyard Quarter.

Somewhere in the middle is my home away from home, recent addition and design hotel, QT Auckland. I’ve arrived early at the pearlescent lobby, but my luggage is whisked away without fuss, leaving me free to explore. By the time I return and enter my Executive King, I’m knackered from treading the streets and mentally diverging between past and present, and thrilled to be able to flop on the incredibly comfortable bed and be propped up by thick, stylish pillows. Here I am ensconced in a tapestry of textures – I don’t want to move. Thankfully the huge TV displays a menu, and a button on the phone says FEED ME. Room service arrives shortly after – a massive falafel bowl in a smart wooden box. 

I recline on a pink bubble chair and gaze out the window at Aucklanders rolling past the end of the marina on electric scooters, looking amongst them for my younger self trudging home from work with bad Noughties hair. Only when a guest from the next room wanders into view in their hotel robe do I realise my window looks diagonally across their outdoor terrace; I hastily retreat to the bed to play with the QT app, which has everything from city guides to tutorials for the Dyson hairdryer in the bathroom. (This, along with the Kevin Murphy products and ring-lit mirror, means I’m suddenly excited to wash my hair.) I hang the eco-friendly housekeeping sign on the door to opt out of room turn-over, a fantastic incentive for which the hotel rewards a $20 food and beverage voucher. 

The next day my travel companion arrives from Canada. Plans for a celebratory reunion cocktail on the hotel’s rooftop bar are scuppered by its being closed for a private event, but the ground floor restaurant, Esther, has an adjoining cocktail bar – its curved, shell-like walls creating an intimate ambience. And pulling up a barstool here means we don’t have to move very far when we’re ready for dinner. 

Netted sculptures hang over the restaurant like deep-sea creatures, and we watch the chef in the sleek open kitchen backdropped by a display of dried fish carcasses – which, the waiter confirms, are real, and used for stocks. Nothing is wasted. Similarly, the sharing of dishes is encouraged. Keen for the Canadian to enjoy the best of New Zealand fare, I order a couple of Te Matuku oysters. We can’t resist the star dish: cloud-light pillows of ricotta gnocchi tucked in an ‘orgy of mushrooms’, worthy of its reputation. Steak tartare comes as a cooking demonstration, with a trolley of ingredients lined up and introduced one by one, though the performance is more memorable than the dish itself. We busy ourselves instead with a deliciously tender cauliflower steak and impeccably chargrilled snapper. Nearby on a different trolley a rum baba is being set on fire… quite the temptation, if we weren’t already full. That the oysters never arrived turns out to be a blessing. 

Morning kicks off with in-room Nespresso (and an audible cheer from me on finding real milk in the fridge) while spying on the morning commuters. Down to the restaurant for breakfast: a plate of plump berries on a bed of granola and yoghurt is lovely, though a prod of the eggs in the Canadian’s shakshuka reveals whites which are wholly translucent, a sign of not giving them enough time. A polite request to pop them in for longer has them returned with a deadpan, ‘Here are your well-done eggs.’ I’m left hoping that for all the thrill and promise of Esther’s performance, today isn’t typical of the kitchen’s attention to detail.

No matter though: the hotel’s prime location means ample dining options on the doorstep (Shucker Brothers, Hello Beasty, White + Wongs). Auckland is, to me, a city still reinventing itself, and in a country that can feel slow to find its footing on an international playing field, it’s making leaps. QT Auckland is a cool young player indeed, one clearly establishing its own role at the heart of downtown. Believe me when I tell you this pocket of the city has come a long way – now an area worth exploring– and the QT is the fun and fashionable retreat you’ll be glad to come back to.