NZ International Football Festival · Eden Park
TottenhamVAuckland FC
Forecast (as of 24 Jul): rain most of the weekend, easing Monday — see If it rains below.
Saturday
AKL → City
SkyDrive bus or Uber to Kingsland / Mt Eden, about 40 min. Drop bags first — you'll be carrying the camera all day.
Atomic Coffee Roasters
Kingsland roastery, five minutes from Eden Park, open 8–3 both weekend days. One of the few genuine roasters open on a Sunday too, so it's your default caffeine stop all trip.
Maungawhau / Mt Eden
Highest natural point in the city. Crater rim boardwalk gives you a 360° of the CBD, Sky Tower and Rangitoto. Morning light is behind you looking north — best window of the trip.
Camera row, Morningside
Auckland Camera Centre and Progear are three minutes apart and both stock second-hand. This is your one clean shot at a used lens — both shut at 3pm today and stay closed Sunday.
Dominion Road lunch
Flavour House Chinese Dumplings for xiao long bao and pan-fried buns, or Phở Yến a few doors down if you'd rather go Vietnamese for pho — expect a queue at Phở Yến on weekends.
Dessert on Dominion Road
Folds Patisserie for Malaysian-inspired pastries — durian, ondeh-ondeh, kaya, matcha. Hulucat a couple of doors down does bubble tea, taro balls and shaved ice if you want something cold instead.
Spurs open training
Eden Park, $15 via Ticketek. Gate E opens 5pm, training starts 6pm — get in early for a front spot on the fence. Long end of your zoom, wide open; training lets you get closer to players than the match will.
Kingsland, or seafood at Westhaven
Walk from the ground: Portland Public House for a pint, Umu for wood-fired pizza. Or, with the car, a 15 minute drive to Westhaven — Sails and Swashbucklers both sit right on the marina for scallops, snapper ceviche and oysters with harbour bridge views. Soul Bar in the Viaduct is the walkable-from-CBD alternative.
Sunday
Phnom Penh, Māngere Bridge
Khmer-run, opens 8am Sunday, cheap and generous. The one properly Cambodian sit-down in Auckland. If you'd rather stay west, Cambodian Takeaways in Avondale opens at noon.
The EOS Coffee
Queens Arcade at the bottom of Queen Street, open 8:30–2:30 on Sunday. Small, owner-run, house blend only — then it's a fifteen minute walk west along the water to the market.
Fish Market & Wynyard Quarter
Oysters and salmon at the market, then walk the waterfront to Silo Park. Boats, cranes and reflections — the strongest non-football frames in the city.
Train to Kingsland
Travel on buses and trains is free with a match ticket from 11:30am. Kingsland station sits right beside the ground, so the walk in is two minutes.
Tottenham v Auckland FC
Eden Park. Shoot the walk-up, the crowd and the tifo as much as the pitch — a kit lens won't reach the far touchline anyway. Winter light dies around 5:30, so the second half is a high-ISO job.
Monday
Maeve Coffee Roasters
Anzac Ave, opens 7am, five minutes downhill from AUT. Highest-rated roaster in the CBD and barely known — small space, mostly takeaway.
AUT City Campus
55 Wellesley St East, open from 8am. The Student Hub opens at 9 if you want to actually talk to someone — worth a call first, walk-ins can wait a while.
K'Road: Junktion
Second-hand and vintage gear, ten minutes uphill from AUT. Inspect anything carefully before you pay — the store's own reviews are split on after-sales support. K'Road itself is the best street photography in Auckland.
Photo Warehouse, Queen St
Queens Arcade, bottom of Queen Street. They carry a used range and it's the only shop open on both Sunday and Monday morning. Last chance before the airport.
Head to AKL
Allow 60 min door to gate for a 3pm domestic departure, more if it rains. Britomart to airport by SkyDrive is the simple option.
Lens hunt
USED · MFT| Shop | Sat | Sun | Mon |
|---|---|---|---|
| Auckland Camera Centre Morningside | 9–3 | Closed | 9–5:30 |
| Progear Morningside | 10–3 | Closed | 9–5:30 |
| Photogear Mt Eden | 9–4 | Closed | 9–5:30 |
| Photo Warehouse Queen St | 10–5 | 10–4 | 9–5 |
| Junktion K'Road | 10–5 | 10–4 | 10–5 |
Monday shop hours run past your 3pm flight, so treat Saturday morning as the real deadline.
- 25mm f/1.7Panasonic. The cheap one that everyone keeps. Nifty-fifty field of view, great in a dark stadium concourse.
- 45mm f/1.8Olympus. Tiny, sharp, portrait length. Second-hand prices are low because so many were sold.
- 12–35 f/2.8Panasonic. Weather-sealed walkaround if you want one lens for the whole weekend.
- 35–100 f/2.8Panasonic. The realistic reach for sideline shots without a monster body.
- CheckFront and rear element under a light for fungus and haze, aperture blades for oil, and run the zoom and focus through full travel.
Trade Me usually beats shop pricing on used MFT, but you lose the return window. Ask the shops what's in the cabinet before you commit either way.
Scenic drives
CAR · SHORT WALKSMuriwai Gannet Colony
45 minute drive west. Easy 45-minute cliff-top loop out to the viewing platform above the colony — dramatic west coast scenery even outside gannet season (Aug–Mar). Free parking at the beach car park.
Cornwall Park / One Tree Hill
10 minute drive from Kingsland. A short walk up to the Maungakiekie summit for a 360° view without the crowds of Mt Eden — the pick if you only want one easy hike and the car's already outside.
Piha's Lion Rock track is closed indefinitely for repairs, so Muriwai is the safer bet for a coastal walk this trip.
If it rains
JULY · AUCKLAND WINTERAuckland Museum
Opens 9am on weekends. The Māori court and the waka hall are dim, dramatic and the best indoor subject in the city — a fast prime earns its keep here. Free for NZ residents with ID.
Auckland Art Gallery
10–5 every day, free entry, right beside Albert Park and a two minute walk from AUT. The timber-canopy atrium is worth the trip on its own.
Commercial Bay & Britomart
Covered laneways between the ferry terminal and Queen Street. Kills an hour indoors without leaving the camera-shop end of town.
The match runs anyway
Eden Park is open-air and the game won't be called off for rain. Pack a plastic rain sleeve or a freezer bag with a hole cut for the lens, plus a microfibre cloth — the G100 is not weather-sealed. Spare battery too: cold drains them fast.