The Garden Party

The Garden Party, an interesting and well stocked gift shop on Auckland’s Ponsonby Road is my go to place for last minute gifts especially at Christmastime where I can nail a few items at once.
Here you’ll find everything from interesting crafted children’s toys, hand creams and other body pampering items, kitchen utensils, arts and crafts, gadgets and uniquely Kiwi products.
The pricing is reasonable and they have free gift wrapping.
Check it out! There’s always something new.

«The Garden Party» is a gold mine for birthday presents and gifts aplenty.
Having shopped here for many years to purchase: children’s tees, hand creams, toys, cards, kitchen utensils, artwork and quirky books, I (totally) rate this store highly!
The shop assistants working in-​store are extremely helpful to suggest items, which makes the experience hassle-​free and seamless.
They greet you when you walk-​in and leave you alone if you prefer.
Great shopping experience!

My first visit to The Garden Party wasn’t for delightful Kiwi-​themed gifts or stuff for my house designed by locals — I had no idea what the shop was or what they sold. My real reason for that first visit to this wonderful shop was a certain t-​shirt that is only sold here. I’m a bit of a public transport advocate, and I’d seen these great t-​shirts which had overseas metro logos with New Zealand station names on them. I thought I should get one, and I traced the source of the shirts to The Garden Party. I still wear my ‘Karangahape’ tube station t-​shirt with pride — suddenly being a train nerd is cool! That shirt is emblematic of what this shop sells — basically cool Kiwi stuff that you won’t find in any other shop — everything from cool shirts to artwork, kitchen and bathroom stuff, kids gifts, all sorts. Absolutely one of a kind!

More than anything else here, the fact that you can always find friendly and helpful service in a Ponsonby gift store astounds me. I have consistently been greeted in a cheery fashion by the staff at The Garden Party, whether browsing or gift hunting. And this is certainly a great gift shop to browse in, combining the fancy gift stores of Parnell with some great Kiwi flair, so they don’t have the tacky «New Zealand souvenir» feel.
A fantastic store, showcasing New Zealand talent, nostalgia and humour; a brilliant shop for impressing friends overseas with something other than postcards of Cape Reinga. A big hit are tea-​towels designer by Melina Martin and the Lynskey sisters (yes, cool tea-​towels).

Ran in here on a Sunday afternoon to grab a present for a one year old. Not the cheapest place to go but the range in here is special and gorgeous and The Garden Party are a passionate supporter of Kiwi-​made products. All the bases are covered and this is where I would prefer people shop for me :)
You won’t find any of these items stocked at The Warehouse or K-​Mart and I am happy to pay more for the local designer items — they are really beautiful. There’s funny stuff, cool stuff, pretty stuff, home stuff, kids’ stuff and more. Oh yeah and garden stuff. There’s art and jewellery and a range of special cards.
After a quick browse I asked the nice lady for some help and we settled on Baa Baa Smart Sheep, an award-​winning book about poo by Mark and Rowan Sommerset, along with an Alphabet Wall Chart featuring such child-​genius words as Astrophysicist. Not everything is crazy expensive (these two items weren’t) and in future I’m going to try and get here for all my gift purchases because why wouldn’t you? Everything about it is better — no plastic crap from China and the pleasure of giving something just a little bit different.