With its wild coastlines, beautiful forests, friendly suburbs and heritage buildings – not to mention hard-working casts and crews – Auckland is a go-to filming location for many top directors. Tātaki Auckland Unlimited’s Screen Auckland assists many local and international production companies when it comes to organising outdoor filming locations or using Auckland’s world class film studios.

TV productions make up roughly 10 per cent of New Zealand’s GDP and bring $1.7 billion to Auckland’s economy. Forty per cent of all local film and TV productions are based in Auckland and provide the region with 8400 jobs (Infometrics, 2024) .

While many screen scenes take place behind closed studio doors, there are several parks and public spaces across Tāmaki Makaurau where TV and film locations can be visited.

Here are eight well-known locations from the big and small screens you can explore in real life.

My Life is Murder

The cast of My Life is Murder (from left) Joe Naufahu, Ebony Vagulans, Lucy Lawless and Rawiri Jobe at Westhaven Marina.

The hit TVNZ+ series My Life is Murder has been described as a “love letter to Tāmaki Makaurau”. Season one of the murder-of-the-week series was set in Melbourne, Australia, but the show and its lead character Alexa Crowe (played by Lucy Lawless) crossed the ditch for season two onward, and Auckland became the show's new co-star.

The show is unapologetically Auckland, with iconic locations such as Auckland War Memorial Museum, the Sky Tower, Maungawhau / Mount Eden, Rangitoto Island, Piha Beach, Westhaven Marina, Britomart and Wynyard Quarter acting as the perfect backdrops to each week’s mystery.

The promenade at Westhaven Marina was a location for My Life is Murder.

Kid Sister

Kid Sister charts the antics of Lulu Emanuel and her Jewish-New Zealand family, so it’s fitting that one of the filming locations for the hit comedy is in Myers Park, a central Auckland space with links to New Zealand’s Jewish community.

Paul Williams and Simone Nathan filming Kid Sister on the playground in Myers Park. Photograph: Mel Nicholson.

Myers Park, near Upper Queen Street, is named after Sir Arthur Myers (1867-1926), the former mayor of Auckland and a prominent member of the Auckland Jewish com  munity.

The swings in the Myers Park playground were a filming location for the TVNZ series Kid Sister.

In 1912, Myers gifted the 2.4ha of land to the council to be developed as a children’s park, and the playground is still popular today.

Other Auckland filming locations for the TVNZ+ show include the former Kadimah School on Greys Ave, St Kevin's Arcade, Karangahape Road and Symonds Street Cemetery.

The Dead Lands

Piha Beach served as a backdrop for the supernatural drama The Dead Lands.

The Dead Lands is a series that follows a murdered Māori warrior who is sent back to the world of the living to find redemption. On his return, Waka Nuku Rau (played by Te Kohe Tuhaka) discovers that the dead now roam the earth, hunting for the living.

To set the scene in this supernatural action series – which takes place in the same universe as the 2014 Toa Fraser movie of the same name – film crews headed to some epic Auckland locations, including the ethereal dunes at Piha, Karekare Beach and Murphy’s Bush.

The Convert

Guy Pierce and Lee Tamahori for The Convert film.

Once Were Warriors director Lee Tamahori’s latest project, The Convert, was filmed in several scenic locations around Tāmaki Makaurau. The feature film staring Guy Pearce, Tioreore Ngatai-Melbourne and Te Kohe Tuhaka follows a young Māori woman in 1830s Aotearoa torn between two cultures in a rapidly changing society.

Whatipu serves as the main location for the period drama, but Wenderholm and Te Rau Puriri Regional Park (South Head) also help to set the scene for colonial-era Auckland.

Te Rau Puriri Regional Park (South Head) was a film location for The Convert.

The Luminaries

Actors Eva Green and Eve Hewson on location in Monte Cecilia Park while filming The Luminaries.

Eleanor Catton’s Booker Prize-winning novel The Luminaries was set in Dunedin and Hokitika, but for the filming of the TV series, Auckland served as a stand-in for these South Island locations. The majority of the series was shot at Tāmaki Makaurau beaches, parks and farmland. Monte Cecilia Park in Hillsborough features in the first episode.

The park and the historical Pah Homestead – which was built between 1877 and 1879 – was also a location used on the 2005 blockbuster The Chronicles of Narnia: The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe.

Monte Cecilia Park was a stand-in for Dunedin for the filming of The Luminaries.

Creamerie

This scene in Season 2 of Creamerie was filmed in Constitution Hill and is an homage to E.T.

Dystopian Kiwi comedy Creamerie explores a society in which most of the men died in a pandemic. Season 2 of the TVNZ+ show features an homage to the iconic flying bicycle scene in Steven Spielberg's E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial. This magical scene was filmed at Constitution Hill near the University of Auckland and the Auckland High Court. Other Auckland filming locations for Creamerie include the former Auckland Railway Station, Pukekawa / Auckland Domain, Muriwai, Nathan Homestead Pukepuke in Manurewa and the former Kingseat Hospital building in Karaka.

Constitution Hill was a filming location for Creamerie.

Mystic

Mystic, the TV adaptation of Kiwi author Stacy Greg’s popular middle grade kids' fiction series Pony Club Secrets, follows Issie Brown’s life in the fictitious rural town of Kauri Point and her encounters with a mysterious horse. The wild west coast at Te Henga / Bethells Beach was a fitting filming location for Kauri Point and for bringing the supernatural elements in the story to life. Filming for this TVNZ+ show also took place at a private farm and Papatoetoe Pony Club.

The TV series Mystic is based on Stacy Greg’s popular book series Pony Club Secrets. Te Henga / Bethells Beach was a filming location for the series, which is set in a fictional New Zealand town.

The Gone

Wainamu Falls near Te Henga / Bethells Beach features in Season 1, Episode 5 of The Gone.

Award-winning TVNZ+ series The Gone follows a police investigation into the disappearance of a young Irish couple. The dark ‘neo noir’ starring Acushla-Tara Kupe, Richard Flood, Manu Bennett and Carolyn Bracken, features some dramatic Auckland locations including Wainamu Falls near Te Henga / Bethells Beach. The series was also filmed in Te Aroha.

Wainamu Falls features in the TVNZ+ series The Gone.