Artspace. Karangahape Road.

Auckland is full of art galleries but there's nowhere really to see a substantial collection of contemporary art in one go - no MoMA, in other words - most galleries are smaller and feature only one or two artists at a time. Artspace is one of the best of these, and comes with the bonus of being housed in the same building as the NZ Film Archive, which is worth investigating if you're into that kind of thing. The advantage of having so many smaller galleries is that there seems to almost be a different opening every night of the week. While the art scene is fairly 'close-knit' these kinds of events aren't usually that exclusive, and offer a good opportunity to score a couple of free beers or glasses of wine. Keep an ear to the ground / have a quick Google and find out where and when.