Ponsonby is the 'place to be seen' suburb in Auckland Central. If one were to generalize about the kind of people that live in Ponsonby the words white, upper (including the upper of the upper) class, SUV driving, Dolce and Gabanna, Nike lycra-wearing mothers who push prams that look like space buggies may come to mind. And on the surface this is what Ponsonby looks like, wealthy, try hard, a little heartless. Yet this is not really the case.
Ponsonby is home to arguably some of Auckland's best cafes and restaurants. If you're looking for somewhere to eat, try Prego, SPQR (the epicentre of Ponsonby swank and cool - anyone who's anyone kind of deal), BurgerFuel, Ease, Santos, Agnus Curran (corner of Franklin Rd and Ponsonby Rd - one of the best little cafes around at the moment), Dizengoff, Bambina, GPK, Thai House, Sawadee, etc the list goes on. Nightlife is not so much of the 'clubbing' variety, but more of the lounge bar, sit down with your martini and new high heeled shoes and talk in long drawn out vowel sounds about the nature of the media kind of thing. (ok, I generalise again). It can be fun... but I'm not joking when I say that if you are not dressed in the 'correct' kind of uniform, you will be looked at sideways more than once. Think black, black, and more black. Add a bit of bling (like an animal tooth necklace or something which would be considered gaudy and old but because you are young and dressed well it just looks like you have a super ironic/trendy eye for all things vintage) and you're in!
Ponsonby has some cool shops, The Women's Bookstore has won best independent book shop a few years running (confirmation needed), and there is the Moa Hunter bookshop in Three Lamps, a fabulous second-hand bookshop. Conch is about to open somewhere under George FM, so Ponsonby will have a boutique music shop all of its own. Republic sells cool homeware (albeit imported from Asia and sold at 600% mark-up), cool jewellery at Shellshock, and I can't be bothered listing all the designer clothing stores - go and have a look yourself.
Ponsonby is also home to Auckland's two best radio stations (in my opinion) George FM (a house station which plays lots of other stuff too, and is always upbeat and a great morning station) and its smaller sister station Base FM which is right next door. Base is the best station ever. 107.3fm for base, 96.8fm for George and both of these will give you a constant and full listing of all the things going on around town in the music/events calender.
Images are in the Public Domain.
