How to make an artform of escaping
April 24, 2025
As the season shifts, from Autumn too quickly to winter, there’s a place to hide, right in the middle of Auckland city. It may have just turned one year old, it’s discreet yet bold and it already feels like it belongs. On a recent stay, Sarah Daniell did too.
We’ve known each other for decades. She’s a lot younger but, to quote Grace Jones, our ages are the least interesting things about us.
There are many descriptors I could apply when talking about us, but simply put: Me: romantic, idealist. She: pragmatic, definitive. Both are curious.
We’d both recently hauled ourselves and our children into new homes in different places. Our foundations equal parts disturbed and altered.
We also talk. A lot. So it was possibly a relief for us both when we were ushered into the Sa-Ni spa at Abstract Hotel in Auckland’s Upper Queen Street. Sanctioned silence. We fell effortlessly into that cocoon, wrapped up in fluffy towels, face down, over and out. Oils and experts for one full glorious hour.
She’d picked the “restorative” oil path and I picked “invigorating”. I wanted citrus and spice, to have a tension exorcism. I didn’t want a rebirth or to die of relaxation on the bed. It’s a fine line sometimes. And we had a whole night ahead of us.
The walk to the Abstract Hotel in Upper Queen St from my home takes about five minutes but to cross the threshold is to enter another realm in the absolute heart of a community that rarely sleeps. Some might, plenty aren’t.
On the corner where Upper Queen St meets K-Rd is a 24-hour grocery store and on the other side, a music shop that’s an institution. From our room we can see the sprawling Symonds St Cemetery and the park benches where the living pause amid the long-gone. Among those buried there are politicians and murderers. Missionaries and mayors. Statues of angels mark the place of lost children. The nearly six hectares where the Symonds Street ridge meets the Karangahape ridge was used by Māori for pa sites and cultivation. The year they started burying people there, in 1841, Tāmaki Makaurau became the capital. We can’t bury history. But it’s soothing to look out at the miles of deciduous trees, pathways and monuments and to try and imagine this place when it was once described as “desolate”.
On a late March afternoon, the city is not desolate. It has a pulse. But inside this sultry urban enclave of dark blue walls adorned with art is a sense of carefully curated calm. From the lobby to the elegant Alla Prossima Restaurant, the staff hit the right note of informality and warm professionalism. This is not an anodyne, or deferential 50-shades-of-beige franchise – it has edge and a buzz.
Apparently some come to Abstract to work. They set up their laptops in the Wintergarden and tap away. In the battle for work-life balance, they’re clearly winning. I, however, am leaning towards luxing right out on the leather sofas in the Library, where provocative black and white photographs of entwined naked bodies adorn the walls. There is a gym, if you must. I walk quickly past it.
We order a drink at the Library bar, take a seat outside and contemplate the menu. At Alla Prossima it changes frequently, according to executive chef Gabriele Marangoni, but his inspiration is consistent: the Emiliano-Romagnola cuisine of Bologna.
The restaurant itself is a gorgeous room; both glamorous and inviting with open kitchens and rich yellow tiling that offsets elegant wooden furniture. But it’s also gorgeous outside, in the Wintergarden with the festoon lights. Besides, it’s not yet winter and we are clinging to the outdoors and candle light.
Over a series of small plates (prawns, octopus, olives, arancini) and a giant antipasta groaning with prosciutto and pancetta, we sip Paseti Collectivetta Pecorino which is the colour of golden flax.
Later, we will go for a wander over to Cross St. But there’s a distinct pleasure in never leaving the main entrance and pretending that for one night at least the rest of the world doesn’t exist.
Two or three glasses in, we’re informed by the hotel manager we’ve been upgraded to a two bedroom studio, on account of being friends not being lovers. We won’t have a view of the cemetery, but we will have more space. It’s a gracious gesture, one that is characteristic of this sanctuary to hide out in, in plain sight.
That night I succumb to a massage-induced sleep-coma. I pull back the curtains the next morning, the sun lights up the sidestreets and the tin roofs. It’s another day and we have to get amongst it. Can’t hide forever.
FACTS:
Abstract has 273 rooms, a mix of sleeper studios, deluxe studios and 1-2 bedroom apartments. The vibe: affordable, understated luxury. The award winning day spa offers a range of treatments. Alla Prossima offers breakfast, lunch and dinner. Order a negroni at the Library Bar.
Abstract Hotel
6-8 Upper Queen St, Auckland
For bookings, visit: abstracthotel.co.nz
LUXURY HOTEL GIVEAWAY
ABSTRACT HOTEL and North & South have a ritzy and restorative giveaway for one lucky subscriber and their plus one. Abstract Hotel, in the heart of Auckland city, has just celebrated its first birthday. Its spa, Sa-Ni, has this year won three awards for the Australasia and Oceania Region for Best Luxury Traditional Thai, Best Interior Design, and Best Luxury Urban Escape. Abstract is the perfect sanctuary for a staycation or if you’re planning a weekend getaway from around the motu.
The prize, to the value of $800, includes:
- One night’s accommodation, with breakfast for two
- Dinner for two at Alla Prossima
- An aromatherapy (or other) treatment at Sa-Ni for two
Promo code
Code: Northandsouth
This also entitles readers a 20 percent discount on single night stays valid from April 24 to September 30 2025.
How to enter, T’s and C’s:
To be in the draw to win the North & South Abstract Hotel prize, email [email protected] with your full name, contact details (including postal address and contact number). Enter ABSTRACT PRIZE in the subject line. Entries close May 9. Prize does not include flights, or transfers.