Auckland

Auckland is New Zealand's largest city by far with a population of around 1.3 million. Auckland sprawls across the Tamaki Isthmus. It is called 'The City of Sails' after its large collection of yachts. It is a maritime city, which looks to the sea in all directions: the Waitemata Harbour and Hauraki Gulf to the East, the Manukau Harbour and the Tasman Sea to the West. It is estimated that there are between 80,000 and 90,000 leisure boats in Auckland. This means about one in four households in Auckland city has a seacraft of some kind and there are 102 beaches within an hours drive. Even the airport is by the water, bordering the Manukau Harbour. It takes its name from the Maori language and means solitary bird.

Auckland was chosen as New Zealand's capital by Governor William Hobson in 1840. The settlement soon became a trading center, growing around the Waitemata Harbour, but it lost its capital status to Wellington in 1865. Today it extends 40km(25miles) north to south and its suburbs sprawl west to the Waitakere Range and east to Waiheke Island.

Basking in a mild, maritime climate and blessed with beaches, accessible islands and regional parks, Auckland has attracted thousands of overseas migrants. The city is sometimes derided by those from other parts of the country, who view it and its inhabitants as brazen, hedonistic and uncultured. Aucklanders are bemused rather than offended by this judgement, after all most residents have moved to the city from elsewhere in New Zealand.

Auckland is the worlds largest Polynesian city with 20% of its people being Maori, Samoan, Tongan and Cook Islanders. Recent migration from south and east Asia, Eastern Europe and South Africa have added extra culture elements to the vibrant cosmopolitian city.

We spent 2 nights here, and only one afternoon wandering around the city center as it's quite small and compact. One of the main attractions here is the sky tower which you can bungy jump off of. We walked past it and it was strange to see the bungy lines running down the side of it. Unfortunately no one was jumping so we decided to walk on as we were getting strange looks for standing, staring, and pointing at the tower. The CBD only seems to consist of 4 grid like streets 2 of which are the main shopping precinct. As it was a nice day we decided to walk alongside the harbour before calling it a day and heading back to the hostel. The hostel we were staying in couldn't have been in a better location as it was just outside the CBD so we were able to have free on street parking and still be close enough to walk into city center within 5 minutes. As we had only 4 nights left in New Zealand we decided to head up to Northland for 2 nights so that we would have the opportunity to experience that area before leaving New Zealand, so we then left Auckland and headed further North.