Giapo

Giapo makes ice cream as a piece of theatre. Orders are assembled at the counter in full view — a cone stacked, dipped, piped and finished according to whatever the current menu calls for, sometimes reaching a height that needs two hands and a plan. The flavours change through the year and lean on New Zealand ingredients rather than the usual parlour list. For children the draw is the watching as much as the eating: the counter sits at a good height, the staff talk through what they are doing as they go, and the whole business takes long enough to count as an event rather than a transaction. It is a small shop and it fills up at weekends, so families with prams often do better mid-afternoon. It is a short walk from the waterfront, which makes it an easy addition to a day already spent down there.