Vulcan Lane

Watching NZ play Australia in World Cup cricket. Couldn’t get tickets to the game so had lunch at Mamak and now am at Vulture’s Lane. Seems to be the place to be. Massive selection of beers and nachos are $ 5.00 today.
Had a pint of Garage Project and now thinking about a pint of 8WiredSemiconductor!

Vulcan Lane is one of the few places that feels genuinely urban in the European sense — not fake manufactured urban like Chancery. It’s pedestrianised so that helps (not a nutty Auckland driver in sight, yay!), the buildings are old, it’s intimately scaled, and there’s just always so many people around, so much going on, and so many places to discover in a very small area. I love that at any given time there’s lots of people moving through, meeting up, or just chilling listening to one of the buskers down the end. There’s plenty of neat establishments along here, most notably the big trio of bars — The Occidental, O’Carrolls and Queens Ferry; Cassette Nine on the other side; and lots of other little spots like the Sushi Factory or Café Melba. Am very glad that the Council finally sees that places like this are the lifeblood of the CBD and that other streets are being given the same treatment!

A charming little lane off Queen Street with lots of good bars and other shops of interest. It’s the little lanes like this that make the CBD interesting and offer welcoming relief from the blandness of Queen Street. There’s a few good bars, namely The Belgian Beer Café; O Carrolls Irish bar and the best of all: Queensferry Hotel. The first time I came here in 2007 (on holiday) I recall browsing in a cool record store and buying a Bob Dylan album. That store is gone now but it indelibly marked Vulcan Lane as one of the cooler places in the CBD. The Vulcan café is a good spot to watch the people go by and another useful addition to the lane is Wishbone Deli. In case you haven’t read my review, it’s got a great selection of pastas and risottos which are great if you are on the go. A bit of cult place to Aucklanders, there’s a lively vibe here and there is always something going on.