New Lynn is solid suburbia from its heart to its heights. The suburb’s focus is its signature mall and it’s fitting that this is where the iconic Crown Lynn potteries, for years, produced tough, serviceable crockery for New Zealand’s dinner tables. Nothing fancy, no pretence. In recent years, the suburb’s status as the civic hub of the west has been usurped by its gung-ho neighbour Henderson but the locals don’t care. They have all that they need. Glen Eden is shaking off its backwater status thanks to the enviable energies of forward thinking locals. They have revitalised its playhouse theatre, smartened up its RSA, acquired an excellent library and put in a railway station café. Don’t get Glen Eden confused with Glendene though. The latter is a newer area that sprouted during the 1960s and 1970s.