THE PLACE God bless New Zealand. In an act of divine, if delayed, intervention, the trans-Tasman bubble has inflated and we can all feel a little less cloistered. I've reserved three nights at The Convent Hotel, a 22-room boutique hotel in inner-city Auckland, on the first day of quarantine-free flights from Australia where, as it transpires, I'm the first Australian guest since its opening late last year. THE LOCATION The Convent is a visual highlight on what is an otherwise prosaic section of the Great North Road which runs through Grey Lynn, an emerging trendy inner-city suburb of New Zealand's largest city. It's not far from the much more posh and established Ponsonby with its lively, restaurant and cafe-filled main street. The small and less remarkable Grey Lynn shopping centre is short walk away with central Auckland an easy Uber or bus ride (take a mask) away.