Best nearby bars. Best journeys. Worst journeys. Best shopping. Best parks. Here’s how to get the best bang for your 5.5 billion bucks.

For Aucklanders, watching the City Rail Link open is a feeling akin to a communist witnessing the fall of capitalism or a George RR Martin fan getting to read The Winds of Winter. Though it’s been central to the city’s identity and sometimes basically its sole source of hope, the rail line has felt imaginary, far off, faintly impossible. Even though signs of its existence were everywhere, primarily in the form of huge holes in the ground, you doubted it would ever arrive.

Now somehow it has, and it’s important to get bang for your 5.5 billion bucks. Though many people may only use the CRL for a quicker commute, it offers much more than that, making huge swathes of the city easily accessible by public transport. To help everyone fully realise those new possibilities, we’ve compiled this user’s guide to some of the best places to eat, shop and visit as you enjoy the novel experience of travelling on a functional train system in New Zealand.

A few notes before we get going. First, I’ve probably screwed up a lot and left a bunch of deserving businesses off the list. This is the story of my life. God damn it, why can’t I get anything right? Poor Hayden. Poor poor Hayden. What’s happening? Oh yeah, writing an article.

Second, this list is focused on the stuff you can access quickly and easily from the new-and-improved rail system. To qualify for inclusion, it has to be a short walk from a station. Let’s say five minutes. That means no Garage Project taproom in best bars, despite it being an excellent place to enjoy Wellington’s latest beer-shaped alchemical experiments. 

Though the entire city is in play here, there may be a bit of a bias toward places near the beautiful new official CRL stations like Karanga-a-hape. I’ve also basically excluded east Auckland, mainly because I refuse to believe it exists. Yes, I’m from the North Shore, which also sucks. Send all complaints to pleasestopbeingmadatme@thespinoff.co.nz. And with that…

Best pubs

Small Gods Brewing (2 Shaddock St, Eden Terrace)

Small Gods has experienced some huge suffering. The taproom sweated through the Maungawhau station’s interminable construction period, getting by on selling its craft brews to passersby who accidentally wandered in off the windswept concrete wasteland to its southwest. Now that wasteland is set to become one of the country’s busiest train stations, and Small Gods’ excellent garden bar will hopefully be rewarded with an influx of more intentional visitors.

If it’s full, an equally good option is a few minutes away. Galbraiths is a proper pub with proper English bitters, proper pint sizes, a proper garden bar and properly stinky men’s toilets.

Runner-up: Northern Line (6 Beresford Square, Auckland city)

You can’t beat the location. Northern Line is at most five seconds walk away from the Karanga-a-hape station’s Pitt Street entrance. It always has a good range of craft beers on tap to chugga-chugga down and its rail theme will get you choo-choo-choosing to come back frequently.

Honourable mentions: No.7, Pitt St; Whammy Bar, Karangahape Rd; Beer Spot, Morningside; Albert’s Post, Mt Albert; Stampede Bar and Grill, Papakura.

Best wine bars

Apéro (280 Karangahape Rd, Auckland city)

Arguably the city’s best wine bar, bar none. Apéro is an institution, defined by owner Leslie Hottiaux’s alluring French menu and her partner Mo Koski’s personally tailored service. It’s one of only a few places in Auckland where you can wander off the street, blurt something along the lines of “I’d like a slightly weird but refreshing white wine” and be handed something to your liking.

Bar Martin (43 Martin Ave, Mt Albert)

Bar Martin is right by Baldwin Avenue station in the weird rabbit warren of streets that make up suburban Mt Albert. It’s a community hub, with an extensive wine list and a sunny space out back.

Best attractions

Mt Albert BBQ Noodle House and Mt Albert BBQ Noodle House (930 and 932 Mt Albert Rd, Mt Albert)

Auckland’s most enduring commercial cold war is taking place directly opposite the Mt Albert train station. Mt Albert BBQ Noodle House is in a long-running dispute with its neighbour, Mt Albert BBQ Noodle House, over who has the rights to the name Mt Albert BBQ Noodle House.

Neither noodle house owner will relent. They’ve put up matching red signs and dole out matching massive helpings of moderately priced Chinese food. Even if you don’t partake in the noodle feast, just seeing the two shops in person is worth the stop-off on your CRL pilgrimage.

Runner-up: Timezone (277 Broadway, Newmarket)

There aren’t many places to go if you’ve got a hankering for bumper cars, tenpin bowling, arcade games and laser tag all at once. Thankfully, Timezone has you covered. Its extensive range of attractions make it a great place to take a child who wants to have fun or an adult who wants to suffer a panic attack and/or seizure in a sea of flashing lights and high-pitched noises.

Best shopping centres

Commercial Bay (7 Queen St, Auckland city)

Owner of the city’s best food court, this swanky new mall has become a focal point for downtown Auckland. Bonus points for being sited on the city’s best square, Te Komititanga.

Runners-up: Sylvia Park (286 Mt Wellington Highway, Mt Wellington), and LynnMall (3058 Great North Road, New Lynn) 

Navigating Sylvia Park has a similar vibe to being stuck inside an Escher painting, but there’s no denying the massive complex has everything you could ever want in a shopping centre, from a cinema to a selfie studio. The precinct is also home to a little-known furniture store called Ikea.

As for LynnMall, The Spinoff judged it to be Auckland’s second-best mall and Lyric Waiwiri-Smith is so passionate about it she has been known to weep.

Best journey

Avondale to Sylvia Park

All aboard the Ikea express. The new East-West line runs from Swanson, through the city centre and out the other side to Manukau without stopping, meaning you can get on the train in a farflung suburb and quickly end up wandering through the rat maze-esque aisles of a Swedish furniture giant at Sylvia Park. The starting point for this journey could have been set virtually anywhere but Avondale was picked due to its value for money. It passes through only two fare zones – isthmus and city centre – meaning you get heaps of kilometres of train for minimal cost.

Runner-up: Anywhere to Karanga-a-hape Station

No one has ever got off a train on Karangahape Road before. That alone makes it worth the journey. But wait, as Suzanne Paul would say, there’s more. The Karangahape precinct now boasts Auckland’s best train station, some of its best shopping and food, its best live music venues, its best mural on the side of a closed strip club and its best collection of oddballs.

Honourable mentions: Just whizzing round the inner-city train stations over and over again, aghast in wonder at a train being underground in New Zealand; taking the East-West line from Swanson to Manukau, the longest urban train journey you can take in this rail-challenged land.

Worst journey

Anywhere out west to Newmarket or Grafton

The CRL will make rail journeys faster. Trains will arrive more frequently and get to their destinations sooner. That is, unless you’re one of the 1,660 unlucky saps who currently use the western line to get to Newmarket or Grafton in the morning. You’ll have to head to Karanga-a-hape or Maungawhau station, then change to the south line to get to work now. 

Sorry, but your suffering is a small price to pay for making everyone else’s journeys way faster.

Best station

Karanga-a-hape

Who doesn’t love a big long escalator? Karanga-a-hape has the longest one in the country. Its prodigious depth makes it the most technically impressive of the three new stations along the CRL. It’s also an artwork in its own right, with the station designed by Reuben Kirkwood (Ngāi Tai ki Tāmaki, Waikato Tainui, Waiohua, Ngāti Ruanui) to convey mana whenua creation stories.

Runner-up: Te Waihorotiu 

Design-wise, Te Waihorotiu is a relatively straightforward and functional station. It’s huge and concrete. It has a lot of escalators and lifts. But the whole thing is elevated by its art. The ceiling of the Wellesley Street entrance is adorned with 4,000 golden rods representing the raupō, or bulrush reeds, which used to grow in Waihorotiu Stream before it was paved to make Queen Street.

Outside stands Wāhine, a statue of a Māori woman performing a karanga, and Horotiu, which represents a longfin blue eel. The collection of art and sculpture help ensure the CRL is beautiful rather than just functional. No one tell Simon Court. He’ll be absolutely ropable.

Best fashion

Crushes (235 Karangahape Rd, Auckland city)

Crushes has been selling vintage, sustainable fashion on Karangahape Rd for 15 years. The store’s abundant selection of one-off garments make it a destination on its own, but its owners Sarah Firmston and Rose Hope have also turned its location on the corner of Pitt Street into a hybrid events space, running knitting clubs, comedy nights, clothes swaps and market days.

Honourable mentions: Fabric, Britomart; Zambesi and Juliette Hogan, Commercial Bay.

Best park

Manu-kau Noa Iho/Hayman Park (15 Davies Ave, Manukau)

Stationed literally next to the Manukau train station, Hayman Park just got an expensive playground upgrade, making it the perfect place to go when you cbf playing another game of “babies” with your five-year-old child Frances, not that I’m thinking of anyone in particular here.

Runner-up: Ōrākei Basin (Ōrākei)

The ban on east Auckland has been briefly lifted thanks to Ōrākei Basin’s outstanding natural beauty. Take the train out over the picturesque Hobson Bay causeway, get off at the Ōrākei station, walk around the tidal basin situated on an ancient volcanic crater and then boost out of there as quickly as you can. Thanks to the CRL, trains should be running every few minutes.

Best cafes

Burnt Butter Diner (62 Rosebank Rd, Avondale)

Madeleine Chapman has written an ode to Burnt Butter’s cheese scones but pretty much everything else it sells is great too. Its inventive menu won it the supreme award in Metro magazine’s latest cafe rankings, pretty much immediately before that magazine imploded.

Runner-up: Coffee Pen (6 Basque Rd, Eden Terrace)

A short walk from the new Maungawhau station, Coffee Pen is a beloved neighbourhood institution. Go on a sunny day, and most people you know will be eating baked goods outside.

Best coffee 

Handpicked Coffee Roasters (918 New North Rd, Mt Albert)

Not sure whether it’s handpicked, but the coffee here is meticulously made and presented. It’s like being served an intricately constructed artwork to slurp up and turn into stomach goo.

Runner-up: Small Mercies (7 Mt Eden Rd, Grafton)

Small Mercies is all about kwaebaegi (Korean twisted doughnuts) but the coffee is a big focus here too: fruity single-origin from Grey Roasting Co in Hamilton. Once again, perfect for turning into a disgusting paste inside your small intestines.

Honourable mentions: Receptionist Coffee Exchange Lane, Auckland city; The Eos Coffee, Auckland city; Kōkako, Commercial Bay; Parable House, Eden Terrace; Dear Deer, Onehunga.

Best takeaways

Baby G (1879 Great North Rd, Avondale)

Arguably the city’s best smash burgers, made a short walk from the Avondale train station.

Runner-up: Kampung Style Malaysian Cafe (145 West Coast Rd, Glen Eden)

Bonus points for literally being located inside the old Glen Eden train station building. Spinoff editor Veronica Schmidt wholeheartedly endorses a beef rendang curry and some dry wontons. 

Honourable mentions: Bunga Raya, New Lynn; Lil Abner’s, Papakura; Parbon Tasty Kitchen, Mt Albert; Sa-on, Henderson; Turkish Chef Kitchen, Glen Eden.