Hi Richie. It's a tough road getting to learn fishing stuff in a major city like Auckland when you're land based. I think a lot of people give up after a while.
For instance, back in the late 80's a mate and I decided we were going to catch a kingfish off the rocks. A reasonable humble goal but neither of us had caught a kingfish before. We didn't have a boat and I like to remember how little we knew back then.
It took us three years to get one.
I haven't done a lot of land based fishing in the last 10 years but the successful LB guys I know usually cover these basics:
Use burley and keep the trail going
Have a small spin rod to catch live bait and fish it in the burley trail
On your 'main rod' put out a stray lined bait and keep that in the burley trail
Fish low light times - early morning and evenings
Don't limit yourself to a particular tide
Keep an eye on the water always so you see what is turning up in your burley, in my limited experience I've seen rays, trevally, piper, kingfish, snapper and a pile of bait fish.
I would try the reef systems around Browns Bay, Whangaparaoa.
Let us know how you get on.