10 Of The Best Things To Do In Auckland This Weekend
Alice Rich
Contributor & Former Editor | Urban List NZ
Two words: magarita crawl. That, and freshly spun house, a stirring psych evaluation, yet another reason why Karangahape Road is one of the best, pilates with a side of stank face and the grand opening of a local treasure. All this and a helluva lot more. The week's done, it's time to seize its end.
Here are 10 of the best things to do in Tāmaki Makaurau Auckland this weekend.
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What’s On In Tāmaki Makaurau This Friday
Infuse Your Weekend With House
Ethan Jupe’s jazz house project, DAWSON, has a fresh new club night series on the horizon dubbed Need To Feel and the first one’s landing in Victoria Park where DAWSON will go b2b with none other than house heavyweight and musical director of Synthony, Dick Johson. So if your week’s been ‘a week’ and you’re in need of a serious lift, you might just want to grab yourself a couple of tickets and get ready for a dose of dance floor.
The Details
Where: The Shy Guy, 210/218 Victoria Street West
When: Friday 11 September 2026
Cost: $28.75
Find out more here.
Be A Fly On The Wall In A Psych Eval
Fresh from Broadway, Silo Theatre’s JOB is one of those theatre gigs where it’s better to go in blind, except for the significant trigger warnings (if that feels like it could be relevant to you, you can get the full rundown on the ticket page and assess accordingly). Set in a psych evaluation between a tech girlie and a therapist, well, I hate to leave you on a cliffhanger, but that’s all you’re going to get.
The Details
Where: Q Theatre, 305 Queen Street
When: Friday 11 September 2026
Cost: From $25
Find out more here.
What’s On In Tāmaki Makaurau This Saturday
Hit Karangahape For Your Vege Run
Karangahape Road has scored its very own farmers market, which launches this weekend right alongside the FAM Saturday Markets vintage markets, and will materialise beside Hopetoun Alpha every Saturday, to infinity and beyond. So rummage around for a bag and skip on down to get your fill of everything from beef and lamb from Hunua to pancakes and organic veges. Keep an eye out for the Karangahape Co-op stall which will be packed with treats from local biz, and hunt down the Small Rave Kids Corner to help try to launch a six metre paper plane.
The Details
Where: Hopetoun Alpha, 19 Beresford Square, Karangahape Road
When: Saturday 12 September 2026 (and every Saturday)
Cost: Entry is free
Find out more here.
Shimmy Into A Margarita Fiesta On Ponsonby Road
If your hand feels incomplete without a marg, you’ll be in good company at Hola Margarita! a self-guided crawl along Ponsonby Road. Your tour begins at a snack bar of choice, where you’ll put your complimentary $10 food voucher to good use, before tackling the crawl choose-your-own-adventure style. Tickets include three, four or five margarita vouchers with seven of Ponsonby’s finest to choose from: Bar Beluga, Chapel Bar & Bistro, Freeman & Grey, Longroom, Nami Record Bar, Revelry and The Broken Lantern.
The Details
Where: Select venues, Ponsonby Road
When: Saturday 12 September 2026
Cost: From $65
Find out more here.
Bend And Stretch To Bass Straight From A London Club
If there's anything to coax you out of bed on a Saturday, surely it's the promise of juicy rave beats, spicy mat pilates flows and a free breakfast bowl from Bowl + Arrow. So if that just happens to be your dream trifecta, you'll want to snap up a ticket to Hiraya's 9am or 10am Rave-latés class and get ready for an energising start to your weekend.
The Details
When: Saturday 12 September 2026
Where: Hiraya Studio, 51 New North Road, Eden Terrace
Cost: $35
Find out more here.
Discover A Winter Wonderland, On A Beach
Orewa Beach might not have been the spot you’d expect to hit for a snow-filled winter festival but that’s exactly what’s going down this weekend. Boasting 20 tonnes of real snow, free hot chocolate for anyone game enough to do the Polar Swim, face painting, clowns, giant games, spot prizes, even Elsa, Olaf and Homie the Gnomie–if you’ve got kids to entertain, this is the spot to be.
The Details
When: Saturday 8 September 2026
Where: Orewa Beach, Moana Reserve, Orewa
Cost: Entry is free
Find out more here.
What’s On In Tāmaki Makaurau This Sunday
Ride The Train
Hold onto your hats, this Sunday marks a new era. After a whopping decade in the making, the holy grail of Tāmaki Makaurau's public transport a.k.a. City Rail Link is poised to open its doors. Hands down, the most-frothed milestone in AT's history, step on board and be among the first to experience CRL in all its glory. (And you can achieve that from as early as 5am-ish when the first service is scheduled to depart)
The Details
Where: At train stations around the city
When: Sunday 13 September 2026
Cost: Varies
Find out more here.
Phoenix A Beloved Ceramic
For the uninitiated, kintsugi is the ancient Japanese art of mending pottery with gold, creating a new life for an object that might otherwise have been biffed. The piece never fails to look better than it did before, and I’m pretty sure that’s a beautiful lesson in owning your imperfections but before we go too far down the rabbit hole, make sure you’ve snapped up a ticket, because these workshops tend to sell out.
The Details
Where: Titirangi Community House, 500 South Titirangi Road, Titirangi
When: Sunday 13 September 2026
Cost: $175
Find out more here.
The Best Things To Do This Weekend
Attend A Tea Party Pooh Bear Would Approve Of
When it comes to high tea, the limit does not exist so high tea watch continues with the launch of The Art of Mānuka Honey at Sofitel’s in-house restaurant La Marée. A collab with Comvita New Zealand, expect dainty pastries, savouries, scones and sweet treats, levelled up with the sweet kiss of Comvita UMF 15+ Mānuka Honey.
The Details
Where: La Marée, Sofitel Auckland, 21 Viaduct Harbour Avenue
When: Every day between 12 and 2pm
Cost: From $79
Find out more here.
Celebrate New Māori Storytelling
Back for its 12th year, Te Ahurei Whakaari o Kōanga is a 10-day celebration of Māori storytelling at springtime kicks off with an evening of opera, waiata, poetry and prose. And as the festival unfolds, expect a free whānau day, a writing workshop, a live collaboration performance, a musical comedy about the queer son of a rugby player, bilingual theatre, and a whole heap more.
The Details
When: 10-20 September 2026
Where: Te Pou Theatre, 2 Mount Lebanon Lane, Henderson
Cost: Varies (but mostly free)
Find out more here.
Want more? Check out:
- All The Essential Food News (So You Can Be In The Know And Eat It Too)
- What's On In Auckland This Month And This Year
- Tāmaki Makaurau's Best Restaurants To Feast At
The Best High Tea In Auckland in 2026
The Best Breakfasts In Auckland And Where To Find Them
Where To Find The Very Best Bars In Auckland
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