A ferry ride to Devonport comes with the Auckland Explorer Bus Tour. We were able to use our ticket on the day after we had done the hop on, hop off experience. Devonport is a small suburb of Auckland that is full of quaint shops and cafes. If you like shopping and eating, this is the place to go.

We walked up the street a little and into the neighborhood at the top of it. There was a beautiful house with five bedrooms and three bathrooms overlooking the harbor with views into Auckland. I thought if we could rent out the two rooms that have bathrooms near them through one of those online hotel rental sites at $100 a night with a 100 percent occupancy rate, we would be able to make $73,000 a year. The home was $3.8 million, so it would only take about six years to pay it off… One can dream.

Devonport’s main attraction for us were the two bookstores and a creativity center. The Depot Artspace is the kind of shop I’d like to open. (You can see my plan and become a part of it at our Patreon page.) It’s a non-profit center that allows artists of all types to get together and create. Painters, writers and musicians can work their craft and sell their art. They even have a learning center where creatives can learn to put together a CV, or resume, to get a job in their preferred industry.

The town was created during the Victorian era and is the epitome of a seaside shopping area. If you get tire of the crowds in Auckland, Devonport makes it easy to get away for a little bit, especially if you move away from the shopping areas and head up the hill.