Explore Auckland’s vibrant street art trails

Auckland’s street art scene is a living, ever-changing outdoor gallery: bold, political, playful, and deeply reflective of the city’s identity. Across inner-city neighbourhoods, murals stretch across building façades, laneways become unexpected canvases, and public installations tell stories of culture, community, and place. For visitors, exploring Auckland’s street art is one of the most accessible and authentic ways to discover the city on foot.

Karangahape Road (K’ Road)

Allow: 1-2 hours

Karangahape Road is the beating heart of Auckland’s street art scene. With more than 50 murals and works spread across the main strip and surrounding laneways, the K’ Road Street Art Trail is one of the city’s most established self-guided walks. An official online guide makes it easy to follow, but part of the fun lies in wandering down side streets and discovering pieces unexpectedly.

The art here reflects the neighbourhood’s alternative spirit and layered cultural history, with works from local and international artists sitting alongside Māori and Pasifika storytelling, social commentary, and large-scale contemporary murals.

Turn the walk into a full experience by stopping for coffee, browsing vintage stores, or settling in for a late lunch.

K’ Road to Queens Wharf Art Path

Allow: 1-1.5 hours

The self-guided route connecting Karangahape Road to Queens Wharf offers a creative way to move through the central city. This roughly 4km path threads through the CBD, revealing murals, public sculptures, and smaller street art installations along the way.

You’ll start near Upper Queen Street, explore K’Road, Myers Park, Aotea Square and Queen Street, and finish near the waterfront where public art is complemented by harbour views. Along the way, take a peek down Airedale Street and Durham Lane West for older graffiti and evolving street art overlooking Queen Street.

If your legs are still going strong, stroll along to the laneways of Britomart, which is home to evocative public artworks, building-side murals and temporary exhibitions, many which draw on Māori culture and identity for inspiration.

Waterfront Public Art Trail

Allow: 45–60 minutes

For a scenic wander, the waterfront public art trail through Wynyard Quarter and the Viaduct Harbour combines murals, sculpture, and installations with sweeping views of the Waitematā Harbour. This route showcases how street and public art are integrated into Auckland’s newer urban spaces within one of the city’s most historic quarters.

It’s an easy, mostly flat walk that incorporates parts of the Silo Park art trail and is ideal for a morning or sunset stroll. Pair it with lunch or drinks at the waterfront, where breezy restaurants and bars spill out onto the harbour edge.

Uptown Art Loop (K’ Road to Upper Queen Street)

Allow: 2-3 hours

The Uptown Art Loop connects Karangahape Road with Upper Queen Street and the surrounding uptown neighbourhoods.

Threading through a creative corridor of galleries, studios, and evolving street art, you can expect to see exhibitions and installations that reflect the area’s creative communities and cultural diversity. The loop can be comfortably explored in about 90 minutes, though it rewards a slower pace if you’re keen to duck into galleries or pause for coffee and a bite to eat along the way.

This trail works well as an extension of a K’ Road art trail or, if you have time and energy, carry on to Ponsonby Road.

Ponsonby

Allow: 2-3 hours

Ponsonby Road is an easy, enjoyable add-on to the Uptown Art Loop and a great place to slow the pace after exploring Karangahape Road. Rather than a defined street art trail, this stretch is all about browsing, people-watching, and dipping in and out of boutiques, galleries, and design stores that line one of Auckland’s most well-known neighbourhood strips. You can easily spend an hour or more wandering here, stopping for a coffee, picking up something locally-made, or grabbing a scoop of gelato before continuing your walk.

Just off the main road, Western Park offers space to contemplate under the trees. Along the park’s paths you’ll find Sculptures at Western Park Path, a series of works by New Zealand artist John Radford. The pieces are integrated into the landscape rather than set apart from it, appearing along the walking routes and adding extra interest to what might otherwise be a simple park stroll.

Te Paparahi Toi Māori

Allow: varied, depending on your route

To deepen your exploration, the Te Paparahi Toi Māori public art walks showcase art, design and architecture celebrating Māori identity. While broader than street art alone, these eight routes include murals, sculptures, and installations that express whakapapa, place, and identity across Tāmaki Makaurau. They offer insights into the rich indigenous culture, Māori values, knowledge, and ways of being.  The walks are self-guided and they can easily be combined with inner-city street art trails to create a richer understanding of the stories behind the city’s visual landscape.

Aucky Walky: Artwalk Auckland private tour

Allow: 2 hours

If you’d prefer a more structured introduction to Auckland’s creative side, Aucky Walky Tours offers a dedicated Artwalk Auckland walking tour that brings together public art, murals, and gallery highlights across the inner city.

Led by local guides, the tour adds context and storytelling to works you might otherwise walk past, from large-scale commissions to smaller, easily missed pieces tucked into side streets.

Their broader Hello Auckland walking tour (3 hours) also weaves in street art along the way, taking participants down central-city laneways and quieter corners where murals and urban artworks may otherwise have gone undiscovered.

ArtExplore Auckland

For a deeper dive into Auckland’s contemporary art scene, ArtExplore Auckland offers guided walking tours that focus on galleries, public artworks, and creative spaces across the inner city. Led by knowledgeable local guides, these small-group walks are designed to help participants discover and better understand contemporary art from Aotearoa and the wider Pacific, with plenty of storytelling and discussion along the way, and even the chance to meet artists.