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Auckland (pronounced ) ( mi, Tāmaki Makaurau) is a large metropolitan city in the
North Island The North Island, also officially named Te Ika-a-Māui, is one of the two main islands of New Zealand, separated from the larger but much less populous South Island by the Cook Strait. The island's area is , making it the world's 14th-larges ...
of
New Zealand New Zealand ( mi, Aotearoa ) is an island country in the southwestern Pacific Ocean. It consists of two main landmasses—the North Island () and the South Island ()—and over 700 smaller islands. It is the sixth-largest island coun ...
. The most populous urban area in the country and the fifth largest city in
Oceania Oceania (, , ) is a geographical region that includes Australasia, Melanesia, Micronesia, and Polynesia. Spanning the Eastern and Western hemispheres, Oceania is estimated to have a land area of and a population of around 44.5 million ...
, Auckland has an urban population of about It is located in the greater
Auckland Region Auckland () is one of the sixteen regions of New Zealand, which takes its name from the eponymous urban area. The region encompasses the Auckland Metropolitan Area, smaller towns, rural areas, and the islands of the Hauraki Gulf. Containin ...
—the area governed by
Auckland Council Auckland Council ( mi, Te Kaunihera o Tāmaki Makaurau) is the local government council for the Auckland Region in New Zealand. It is a territorial authority that has the responsibilities, duties and powers of a regional council and so is a ...
—which includes outlying rural areas and the islands of the
Hauraki Gulf The Hauraki Gulf / Tīkapa Moana is a coastal feature of the North Island of New Zealand. It has an area of 4000 km2,European New Zealanders, Europeans continue to make up the plurality of Auckland's population, the city became multicultural and
cosmopolitan Cosmopolitan may refer to: Food and drink * Cosmopolitan (cocktail), also known as a "Cosmo" History * Rootless cosmopolitan, a Soviet derogatory epithet during Joseph Stalin's anti-Semitic campaign of 1949–1953 Hotels and resorts * Cosmopoli ...
in the late-20th century, with
Asians Asian people (or Asians, sometimes referred to as Asiatic people)United States National Library of Medicine. Medical Subject Headings. 2004. November 17, 200Nlm.nih.gov: ''Asian Continental Ancestry Group'' is also used for categorical purpos ...
accounting for 31% of the city's population in 2018. Auckland has the fourth largest foreign-born population in the world, with 39% of its residents born overseas. With its large population of
Pasifika New Zealanders Pasifika New Zealanders are a pan-ethnic group of New Zealanders associated with, and descended from, the indigenous peoples of the Pacific Islands outside of New Zealand itself (also known as Pacific Islanders). They form the fourth-largest ...
, the city is also home to the biggest ethnic Polynesian population in the world. The Māori-language name for Auckland is ', meaning "Tāmaki desired by many", in reference to the desirability of its natural resources and geography. Auckland lies between the
Hauraki Gulf The Hauraki Gulf / Tīkapa Moana is a coastal feature of the North Island of New Zealand. It has an area of 4000 km2,Hunua Ranges to the south-east, the Manukau Harbour to the south-west, and the
Waitākere Ranges The Waitākere Ranges is a mountain range in New Zealand. Located in West Auckland between metropolitan Auckland and the Tasman Sea, the ranges and its foothills and coasts comprise some of public and private land. The area, traditionally kno ...
and smaller ranges to the west and north-west. The surrounding hills are covered in
rainforest Rainforests are characterized by a closed and continuous tree canopy, moisture-dependent vegetation, the presence of epiphytes and lianas and the absence of wildfire. Rainforest can be classified as tropical rainforest or temperate rainfores ...
and the landscape is dotted with 53 volcanic centres that make up the
Auckland Volcanic Field The Auckland volcanic field is an area of monogenetic volcanoes covered by much of the metropolitan area of Auckland, New Zealand's largest city, located in the North Island. The approximately 53 volcanoes in the field have produced a diverse a ...
. The central part of the urban area occupies a narrow isthmus between the Manukau Harbour on the
Tasman Sea The Tasman Sea (Māori: ''Te Tai-o-Rēhua'', ) is a marginal sea of the South Pacific Ocean, situated between Australia and New Zealand. It measures about across and about from north to south. The sea was named after the Dutch explorer ...
and the Waitematā Harbour on the
Pacific Ocean The Pacific Ocean is the largest and deepest of Earth's five oceanic divisions. It extends from the Arctic Ocean in the north to the Southern Ocean (or, depending on definition, to Antarctica) in the south, and is bounded by the conti ...
. Auckland is one of the few cities in the world to have a harbour on each of two separate major bodies of water. The Auckland isthmus was first settled and was valued for its rich and fertile land. The
Māori Māori or Maori can refer to: Relating to the Māori people * Māori people of New Zealand, or members of that group * Māori language, the language of the Māori people of New Zealand * Māori culture * Cook Islanders, the Māori people of the Co ...
population in the area is estimated to have peaked at 20,000 before the arrival of Europeans. After a
British colony The British Overseas Territories (BOTs), also known as the United Kingdom Overseas Territories (UKOTs), are fourteen territories with a constitutional and historical link with the United Kingdom. They are the last remnants of the former Bri ...
was established in New Zealand in 1840, William Hobson, then Lieutenant-Governor of New Zealand, chose Auckland as its new
capital Capital may refer to: Common uses * Capital city, a municipality of primary status ** List of national capital cities * Capital letter, an upper-case letter Economics and social sciences * Capital (economics), the durable produced goods used fo ...
. He named the area for George Eden, Earl of Auckland, British
First Lord of the Admiralty The First Lord of the Admiralty, or formally the Office of the First Lord of the Admiralty, was the political head of the English and later British Royal Navy. He was the government's senior adviser on all naval affairs, responsible for the di ...
. Māori–European conflict over land in the region led to war in the mid-19th century. In 1865, Auckland was replaced by
Wellington Wellington ( mi, Te Whanganui-a-Tara or ) is the capital city of New Zealand. It is located at the south-western tip of the North Island, between Cook Strait and the Remutaka Range. Wellington is the second-largest city in New Zealand by ...
as the capital, but continued to grow, initially because of its port and the logging and gold-mining activities in its hinterland, and later because of pastoral farming (especially dairy farming) in the surrounding area, and manufacturing in the city itself. It has been the nation's largest city throughout most of its history. Today, Auckland's central business district is New Zealand's leading economic hub. It also has a thriving culture that has influenced others across the world, built on its dynamic arts scene and a richly multicultural history. The
University of Auckland , mottoeng = By natural ability and hard work , established = 1883; years ago , endowment = NZD $293 million (31 December 2021) , budget = NZD $1.281 billion (31 December 2021) , chancellor = Cecilia Tarrant , vice_chancellor = Dawn F ...
, founded in 1883, is the largest university in New Zealand. The city's significant tourist attractions include national historic sites, festivals, performing arts, sports activities, and a variety of cultural institutions, such as the
Auckland War Memorial Museum The Auckland War Memorial Museum Tāmaki Paenga Hira (or simply the Auckland Museum) is one of New Zealand's most important museums and war memorials. Its collections concentrate on New Zealand history (and especially the history of the Auckl ...
, the Museum of Transport and Technology, and the
Auckland Art Gallery Toi o Tāmaki Auckland Art Gallery Toi o Tāmaki is the principal public gallery in Auckland, New Zealand. It has the most extensive collection of national and international art in New Zealand and frequently hosts travelling international exhibitions. Set be ...
. Its architectural landmarks include the Harbour Bridge, the
Town Hall In local government, a city hall, town hall, civic centre (in the UK or Australia), guildhall, or a municipal building (in the Philippines), is the chief administrative building of a city, town, or other municipality. It usually houses ...
, the Ferry Building and the Sky Tower, which is both the tallest tower and the tallest building in the Southern Hemisphere. The city is served by Auckland Airport, which handles around 2 million international passengers a month. Despite being one of the most expensive cities in the world, Auckland is recognised as one of the world's
most liveable cities City quality of life indices are lists of cities that are ranked according to a defined measure of living conditions. In addition to considering the provision of clean water, clean air, adequate food and shelter, many indexes also measure more s ...
, ranking third in the 2019 Mercer Quality of Living Survey and at first place in a 2021 ranking of the Global Liveability Ranking by ''
The Economist ''The Economist'' is a British weekly newspaper printed in demitab format and published digitally. It focuses on current affairs, international business, politics, technology, and culture. Based in London, the newspaper is owned by The Eco ...
''.


History


Early history

The Auckland isthmus was settled by
Māori Māori or Maori can refer to: Relating to the Māori people * Māori people of New Zealand, or members of that group * Māori language, the language of the Māori people of New Zealand * Māori culture * Cook Islanders, the Māori people of the Co ...
circa 1350, and was valued for its rich and fertile land. Many ''
pā The word pā (; often spelled pa in English) can refer to any Māori village or defensive settlement, but often refers to hillforts – fortified settlements with palisades and defensive terraces – and also to fortified villages. Pā sites ...
'' (fortified villages) were created, mainly on the volcanic peaks. By the early 1700s, Te Waiohua, a confederation of tribes such as Ngā Oho, Ngā Riki and Ngā Iwi, became the main influential force on the Auckland isthmus, with major
pā The word pā (; often spelled pa in English) can refer to any Māori village or defensive settlement, but often refers to hillforts – fortified settlements with palisades and defensive terraces – and also to fortified villages. Pā sites ...
located at Maungakiekie / One Tree Hill, Māngere Mountain and
Maungataketake Maungataketake (also Ellett's Mount) is one of the volcanoes in the Auckland volcanic field in New Zealand. It had a 76 m high scoria cone, beside a 100 m wide crater, before they were quarried away. It was the site of a pā. Layers ...
. The confederation came to an end around 1741, when
paramount chief A paramount chief is the English-language designation for the highest-level political leader in a regional or local polity or country administered politically with a chief-based system. This term is used occasionally in anthropological and arc ...
Kiwi Tāmaki was killed in battle by Ngāti Whātua
hapū In Māori and New Zealand English, a ' ("subtribe", or "clan") functions as "the basic political unit within Māori society". A Māori person can belong to or have links to many hapū. Historically, each hapū had its own chief and normally opera ...
Te Taoū chief Te Waha-akiaki. From the 1740s onwards, Ngāti Whātua Ōrākei became the major influential force on the Auckland isthmus. The Māori population in the area is estimated to have been about 20,000 before the arrival of Europeans. The introduction of firearms at the end of the eighteenth century, which began in Northland, upset the balance of power and led to devastating intertribal warfare beginning in 1807, causing iwi who lacked the new weapons to seek refuge in areas less exposed to coastal raids. As a result, the region had relatively low numbers of Māori when settlement by European New Zealanders began. On 20 March 1840 in the Manukau Harbour area where Ngāti Whātua farmed, paramount chief
Apihai Te Kawau Apihai Te Kawau (died November 1869) was a paramount chief of the Ngāti Whātua Māori ''iwi'' (tribe) of Auckland (), New Zealand in the 19th century. Te Kawau's father was Tarahawaiki and his grandfather was Tūperiri, the principal leader o ...
signed ''Te Tiriti o Waitangi'' (the ''te reo
Māori Māori or Maori can refer to: Relating to the Māori people * Māori people of New Zealand, or members of that group * Māori language, the language of the Māori people of New Zealand * Māori culture * Cook Islanders, the Māori people of the Co ...
'' translation of the Treaty of Waitangi). Ngāti Whātua sought British protection from Ngāpuhi as well as a reciprocal relationship with the Crown and the
Church Church may refer to: Religion * Church (building), a building for Christian religious activities * Church (congregation), a local congregation of a Christian denomination * Church service, a formalized period of Christian communal worship * Chri ...
. Soon after signing ''Te Tiriti'', Ngāti Whātua Ōrākei made a ''tuku'' (strategic gift) of 3,500 acres (1,400 hectares) of land on the Waitematā Harbour to the new Governor of New Zealand, William Hobson, for the new
capital Capital may refer to: Common uses * Capital city, a municipality of primary status ** List of national capital cities * Capital letter, an upper-case letter Economics and social sciences * Capital (economics), the durable produced goods used fo ...
, which Hobson named for George Eden, Earl of Auckland, then
Viceroy of India The Governor-General of India (1773–1950, from 1858 to 1947 the Viceroy and Governor-General of India, commonly shortened to Viceroy of India) was the representative of the monarch of the United Kingdom and after Indian independence in 19 ...
. Auckland was founded on 18 September 1840 and was officially declared New Zealand's capital in 1841, and the transfer of the administration from Russell (now Old Russell) in the Bay of Islands was completed in 1842. However, even in 1840
Port Nicholson A port is a maritime facility comprising one or more wharves or loading areas, where ships load and discharge cargo and passengers. Although usually situated on a sea coast or estuary, ports can also be found far inland, such as Ha ...
(later renamed
Wellington Wellington ( mi, Te Whanganui-a-Tara or ) is the capital city of New Zealand. It is located at the south-western tip of the North Island, between Cook Strait and the Remutaka Range. Wellington is the second-largest city in New Zealand by ...
) was seen as a better choice for an administrative capital because of its proximity to the
South Island The South Island, also officially named , is the larger of the two major islands of New Zealand in surface area, the other being the smaller but more populous North Island. It is bordered to the north by Cook Strait, to the west by the Tasman ...
, and Wellington became the capital in 1865. After losing its status as capital, Auckland remained the principal city of the Auckland Province until the provincial system was abolished in 1876. In response to the ongoing rebellion by
Hōne Heke Hōne Wiremu Heke Pōkai ( 1807/1808 – 7 August 1850), born Heke Pōkai and later often referred to as Hōne Heke, was a highly influential Māori rangatira (chief) of the Ngāpuhi iwi (tribe) and a war leader in northern New Zealand; he wa ...
in the mid-1840s, the government encouraged retired but fit British soldiers and their families to migrate to Auckland to form a defence line around the port settlement as garrison soldiers. By the time the first Fencibles arrived in 1848, the
Northern War "Northern Wars" is a term used for a series of wars fought in northern and northeastern Europe from the 16th to the 18th century. An internationally agreed-on nomenclature for these wars has not yet been devised. While the Great Northern War is ge ...
had concluded. Outlying defensive towns were then constructed to the south, stretching in a line from the port village of Onehunga in the west to Howick in the east. Each of the four settlements had about 800 settlers; the men were fully armed in case of emergency, but spent nearly all their time breaking in the land and establishing roads. In the early 1860s, Auckland became a base against the Māori King Movement, and the 12,000 Imperial soldiers stationed there led to a strong boost to local commerce. This, and continued road building towards the south into the Waikato region, enabled
Pākehā Pākehā (or Pakeha; ; ) is a Māori term for New Zealanders primarily of European descent. Pākehā is not a legal concept and has no definition under New Zealand law. The term can apply to fair-skinned persons, or to any non-Māori New Z ...
(European New Zealanders) influence to spread from Auckland. The city's population grew fairly rapidly, from 1,500 in 1841 to 3,635 in 1845, then to 12,423 by 1864. The growth occurred similarly to other
mercantile Trade involves the transfer of goods and services from one person or entity to another, often in exchange for money. Economists refer to a system or network that allows trade as a market. An early form of trade, barter, saw the direct exch ...
-dominated cities, mainly around the port and with problems of overcrowding and pollution. Auckland's population of ex-soldiers was far greater than that of other settlements: about 50 percent of the population was Irish, which contrasted heavily with the majority English settlers in Wellington,
Christchurch Christchurch ( ; mi, Ōtautahi) is the largest city in the South Island of New Zealand and the seat of the Canterbury Region. Christchurch lies on the South Island's east coast, just north of Banks Peninsula on Pegasus Bay. The Avon Rive ...
or
New Plymouth New Plymouth ( mi, Ngāmotu) is the major city of the Taranaki region on the west coast of the North Island of New Zealand. It is named after the English city of Plymouth, Devon from where the first English settlers to New Plymouth migrated. Th ...
. The majority of settlers in the early period were assisted by receiving cheap passage to New Zealand.


Modern history

Trams and railway lines shaped Auckland's rapid expansion in the early first half of the 20th century. However, after the Second World War the city's transport system and urban form became increasingly dominated by the motor vehicle. Arterial roads and motorways became both defining and geographically dividing features of the urban landscape. They also allowed further massive expansion that resulted in the growth of suburban areas such as the North Shore (especially after the construction of the Auckland Harbour Bridge in the late 1950s), and Manukau City in the south. Economic deregulation in the mid-1980s led to very dramatic changes to Auckland's economy and many companies relocated their head offices from Wellington to Auckland. The region was now the nerve centre of the entire national economy. Auckland also benefited from a surge in tourism, which brought 75 percent of New Zealand's international visitors through its airport. Auckland's port handled 31 percent of the country's container trade in 2015. The face of urban Auckland changed when the government's immigration policy began allowing immigrants from Asia in 1986. This has led to Auckland becoming a
multi-cultural The term multiculturalism has a range of meanings within the contexts of sociology, political philosophy, and colloquial use. In sociology and in everyday usage, it is a synonym for " ethnic pluralism", with the two terms often used interchang ...
city, with people of all ethnic backgrounds. According to the 1961 census data, Māori and Pacific Islanders comprised 5 percent of Auckland's population; Asians less than 1 percent. By 2006 the Asian population had reached 18.0 percent in Auckland, and 36.2 percent in the central city. New arrivals from Hong Kong,
Taiwan Taiwan, officially the Republic of China (ROC), is a country in East Asia, at the junction of the East and South China Seas in the northwestern Pacific Ocean, with the People's Republic of China (PRC) to the northwest, Japan to the no ...
and
Korea Korea ( ko, 한국, or , ) is a peninsular region in East Asia. Since 1945, it has been divided at or near the 38th parallel, with North Korea (Democratic People's Republic of Korea) comprising its northern half and South Korea (Republic ...
gave a distinctive character to the areas where they clustered, while a range of other immigrants introduced mosques,
Hindu Hindus (; ) are people who religiously adhere to Hinduism. Jeffery D. Long (2007), A Vision for Hinduism, IB Tauris, , pages 35–37 Historically, the term has also been used as a geographical, cultural, and later religious identifier for ...
temples, halal butchers and ethnic restaurants to the suburbs.


Geography


Scope

The boundaries of Auckland are imprecisely defined. The Auckland
urban area An urban area, built-up area or urban agglomeration is a human settlement with a high population density and infrastructure of built environment. Urban areas are created through urbanization and are categorized by urban morphology as cities ...
, as it is defined by Statistics New Zealand under the ''Statistical Standard for Geographic Areas 2018'' (SSGA18), spans and extends to Long Bay in the north,
Swanson Swanson is a brand of TV dinners, broths, and canned poultry made for the North American and Hong Kong markets. The former "Swanson Company" was founded in Omaha, Nebraska, where it developed improvements of the frozen dinner. The TV dinner b ...
in the north-west, and Runciman in the south. Auckland's functional urban area (commuting zone) extends from just south of Warkworth in the north to Meremere in the south, incorporating the Hibiscus Coast in the northeast, Helensville, Parakai, Muriwai, Waimauku, Kumeu- Huapai, and Riverhead in the northwest, Beachlands-Pine Harbour and Maraetai in the east, and Pukekohe,
Clarks Beach Clarks Beach is a small town of Auckland, New Zealand. It is in the former Franklin District local government area. Primarily a beachside rural town, situated within the Manukau Harbour, at the mouth of the Waiuku River, it fronts the harbour ...
, Patumāhoe, Waiuku, Tuakau and
Pōkeno Pōkeno is a small town in the Waikato District of the Waikato region in New Zealand, southeast of Auckland, from Tuakau and from Mercer. State Highway 1 originally ran through the town, but the upgrading of the highway in 1992 to expresswa ...
(the latter two in the Waikato region) in the south. Auckland forms New Zealand's largest urban area. The Auckland urban area lies within the
Auckland Region Auckland () is one of the sixteen regions of New Zealand, which takes its name from the eponymous urban area. The region encompasses the Auckland Metropolitan Area, smaller towns, rural areas, and the islands of the Hauraki Gulf. Containin ...
, an administrative region that takes its name from the city. The region encompasses the city centre, as well as suburbs, surrounding towns, nearshore islands, and rural areas north and south of the urban area. The
Auckland central business district The Auckland Central Business District (CBD), or Auckland city centre, is the geographical and economic heart of the Auckland metropolitan area. It is the area in which Auckland was established in 1840, by William Hobson. It is New Zealand's le ...
(CBD)—the city centre—is the most built-up area of the region. The CBD covers in a triangular area, and is bounded by the Auckland waterfront on the Waitematā Harbour and the inner-city suburbs of Ponsonby, Newton and Parnell.


Harbours and gulf

The central areas of the city are located on the Auckland isthmus, less than two kilometres wide at its narrowest point, between Māngere Inlet and the Tāmaki River. There are two harbours surrounding this isthmus: Waitematā Harbour to the north, which extends east to the
Hauraki Gulf The Hauraki Gulf / Tīkapa Moana is a coastal feature of the North Island of New Zealand. It has an area of 4000 km2,Pacific Ocean The Pacific Ocean is the largest and deepest of Earth's five oceanic divisions. It extends from the Arctic Ocean in the north to the Southern Ocean (or, depending on definition, to Antarctica) in the south, and is bounded by the conti ...
, and Manukau Harbour to the south, which opens west to the
Tasman Sea The Tasman Sea (Māori: ''Te Tai-o-Rēhua'', ) is a marginal sea of the South Pacific Ocean, situated between Australia and New Zealand. It measures about across and about from north to south. The sea was named after the Dutch explorer ...
. Bridges span parts of both harbours, notably the Auckland Harbour Bridge crossing the Waitematā Harbour west of the central business district. The Māngere Bridge (bridges), Māngere Bridge and the Upper Harbour Bridge span the upper reaches of the Manukau and Waitematā Harbours, respectively. In earlier times,
portage Portage or portaging (Canada: ; ) is the practice of carrying water craft or cargo over land, either around an obstacle in a river, or between two bodies of water. A path where items are regularly carried between bodies of water is also called a ...
s crossed the narrowest sections of the isthmus. Several islands of the Hauraki Gulf are administered as part of the Auckland Region, though they are not part of the Auckland urban area. Parts of Waiheke Island effectively function as Auckland suburbs, while various smaller islands near Auckland are mostly zoned 'recreational open space' or are nature sanctuaries.


Climate

Under the
Köppen climate classification The Köppen climate classification is one of the most widely used climate classification systems. It was first published by German-Russian climatologist Wladimir Köppen (1846–1940) in 1884, with several later modifications by Köppen, nota ...
, Auckland has an
oceanic climate An oceanic climate, also known as a marine climate, is the humid temperate climate sub-type in Köppen classification ''Cfb'', typical of west coasts in higher middle latitudes of continents, generally featuring cool summers and mild winters ...
(Köppen climate classification ''Cfb''), while according to the National Institute of Water and Atmospheric Research (NIWA), its climate is classified as
subtropical The subtropical zones or subtropics are geographical and climate zones to the north and south of the tropics. Geographically part of the temperate zones of both hemispheres, they cover the middle latitudes from to approximately 35° north a ...
with warm humid summers and mild damp winters. It is the warmest main centre of New Zealand. The average daily maximum temperature is in February and in July. The maximum recorded temperature is on 12 February 2009, while the minimum is , although there is also an unofficial low of recorded at Riverhead Forest in June 1936.
Snowfall Snow comprises individual ice crystals that grow while suspended in the atmosphere—usually within clouds—and then fall, accumulating on the ground where they undergo further changes. It consists of frozen crystalline water throughout ...
is extremely rare: the most significant fall since the start of the 20th century was on 27 July 1939, when snow stuck to the clothes of people outdoors just before dawn and of snow reportedly lay on Mount Eden. Snowflakes were also seen on 28 July 1930 and 15 August 2011. The early morning calm on the isthmus during settled weather, before the sea breeze rises, was described as early as 1853: "In all seasons, the beauty of the day is in the early morning. At that time, generally, a solemn stillness holds, and a perfect calm prevails...".''Auckland, the Capital of New Zealand'' – Swainson, William, Smith Elder, 1853 Auckland occasionally suffers from air pollution due to
fine particle Particulates – also known as atmospheric aerosol particles, atmospheric particulate matter, particulate matter (PM) or suspended particulate matter (SPM) – are microscopic particles of solid or liquid matter suspended in the air. The ter ...
emissions. There are also occasional breaches of guideline levels of
carbon monoxide Carbon monoxide ( chemical formula CO) is a colorless, poisonous, odorless, tasteless, flammable gas that is slightly less dense than air. Carbon monoxide consists of one carbon atom and one oxygen atom connected by a triple bond. It is the simpl ...
. While maritime winds normally disperse the pollution relatively quickly it can sometimes become visible as smog, especially on calm winter days.


Volcanoes

The city of Auckland straddles the
Auckland Volcanic Field The Auckland volcanic field is an area of monogenetic volcanoes covered by much of the metropolitan area of Auckland, New Zealand's largest city, located in the North Island. The approximately 53 volcanoes in the field have produced a diverse a ...
, an area which in the past, produced at least 53 small
volcanic A volcano is a rupture in the crust of a planetary-mass object, such as Earth, that allows hot lava, volcanic ash, and gases to escape from a magma chamber below the surface. On Earth, volcanoes are most often found where tectonic plat ...
centers over the last ~193,000 years, represented by a range of surface features including
maars A maar is a broad, low- relief volcanic crater caused by a phreatomagmatic eruption (an explosion which occurs when groundwater comes into contact with hot lava or magma). A maar characteristically fills with water to form a relatively sha ...
(explosion craters), tuff rings, scoria cones, and
lava Lava is molten or partially molten rock (magma) that has been expelled from the interior of a terrestrial planet (such as Earth) or a moon onto its surface. Lava may be erupted at a volcano or through a fracture in the crust, on land or ...
flows. It is fed entirely by
basaltic Basalt (; ) is an aphanitic (fine-grained) extrusive igneous rock formed from the rapid cooling of low-viscosity lava rich in magnesium and iron ( mafic lava) exposed at or very near the surface of a rocky planet or moon. More than ...
magma Magma () is the molten or semi-molten natural material from which all igneous rocks are formed. Magma is found beneath the surface of the Earth, and evidence of magmatism has also been discovered on other terrestrial planets and some natura ...
sourced from the
mantle A mantle is a piece of clothing, a type of cloak. Several other meanings are derived from that. Mantle may refer to: *Mantle (clothing), a cloak-like garment worn mainly by women as fashionable outerwear **Mantle (vesture), an Eastern Orthodox ve ...
at a depth of 70–90 km below the city, and is unrelated to the explosive,
subduction Subduction is a geological process in which the oceanic lithosphere is recycled into the Earth's mantle at convergent boundaries. Where the oceanic lithosphere of a tectonic plate converges with the less dense lithosphere of a second plate, ...
-driven volcanism of the
Taupō Volcanic Zone The Taupō Volcanic Zone (TVZ) is a volcanic area in the North Island of New Zealand that has been active for the past two million years and is still highly active. Mount Ruapehu marks its south-western end and the zone runs north-eastward throu ...
in the Central North Island region of Aotearoa New Zealand, ~250 km away. The Auckland Volcanic Field is considered to be a monogenetic volcanic field, with each volcano erupting only a single time, usually over a timeframe of weeks to years before cessation of activity. Future eruptive activity remains a threat to the city, and will likely occur at a new, unknown location within the field. The most recent activity occurred approximately 1450 AD at the Rangitoto Volcano. This event was witnessed by
Māori Māori or Maori can refer to: Relating to the Māori people * Māori people of New Zealand, or members of that group * Māori language, the language of the Māori people of New Zealand * Māori culture * Cook Islanders, the Māori people of the Co ...
occupants of the area, making it the only eruption within the Auckland Volcanic Field thus far to have been observed by humans. The Auckland Volcanic Field has contributed greatly to the growth and prosperity of the Auckland Region since the area was settled by humans. Initially, the maunga (scoria cones) were occupied and established as
pā The word pā (; often spelled pa in English) can refer to any Māori village or defensive settlement, but often refers to hillforts – fortified settlements with palisades and defensive terraces – and also to fortified villages. Pā sites ...
(fortified settlements) by Māori due to the strategic advantage their elevation provided in controlling resources and key portages between the Waitematā and
Manukau Manukau (), or Manukau Central, is a suburb of South Auckland, New Zealand, centred on the Manukau City Centre business district. It is located 23 kilometres south of the Auckland Central Business District, west of the Southern Motorway, so ...
harbours. The rich volcanic soils found in these areas also proved ideal for the cultivation of crops, such as kumara. Following European arrival, many of the maunga were transformed into quarries to supply the growing city with aggregate and building materials, and as a result were severely damaged or entirely destroyed. A number of the smaller maar craters and tuff rings were also removed during earthworks. Most of the remaining volcanic centres are now preserved within recreational reserves administered by
Auckland Council Auckland Council ( mi, Te Kaunihera o Tāmaki Makaurau) is the local government council for the Auckland Region in New Zealand. It is a territorial authority that has the responsibilities, duties and powers of a regional council and so is a ...
, the
Department of Conservation An environmental ministry is a national or subnational government agency politically responsible for the environment and/or natural resources. Various other names are commonly used to identify such agencies, such as Ministry of the Environment ...
, and th
Tūpuna Maunga o Tāmaki Makaurau Authority


Demographics

The Auckland urban area, as defined by Statistics New Zealand, covers . The urban area has an estimated population of as of , percent of New Zealand's population. The city has a population larger than the entire
South Island The South Island, also officially named , is the larger of the two major islands of New Zealand in surface area, the other being the smaller but more populous North Island. It is bordered to the north by Cook Strait, to the west by the Tasman ...
(). The Auckland urban area had a usual resident population of 1,346,091 at the
2018 New Zealand census Eighteen or 18 may refer to: * 18 (number), the natural number following 17 and preceding 19 * one of the years 18 BC, AD 18, 1918, 2018 Film, television and entertainment * ''18'' (film), a 1993 Taiwanese experimental film based on the short ...
, an increase of 122,343 people (10.0%) since the 2013 census, and an increase of 212,484 people (18.7%) since the 2006 census. There were 665,202 males and 680,886 females, giving a sex ratio of 0.977 males per female. Of the total population, 269,367 people (20.0%) were aged up to 15 years, 320,181 (23.8%) were 15 to 29, 605,823 (45.0%) were 30 to 64, and 150,720 (11.2%) were 65 or older.


Culture and identity

Many ethnic groups, since the late 20th century, have had an increasing presence in Auckland, making it by far the country's most
cosmopolitan Cosmopolitan may refer to: Food and drink * Cosmopolitan (cocktail), also known as a "Cosmo" History * Rootless cosmopolitan, a Soviet derogatory epithet during Joseph Stalin's anti-Semitic campaign of 1949–1953 Hotels and resorts * Cosmopoli ...
city. Historically, Auckland's population has been of majority European origin, though the proportion of those of Asian or other non-European origins has increased in recent decades due to the removal of restrictions directly or indirectly based on race. Europeans continue to make up the plurality of the city's population, but no longer constitute a majority after decreasing in proportion from 54.6% to 48.1% between the 2013 and 2018 censuses.
Asians Asian people (or Asians, sometimes referred to as Asiatic people)United States National Library of Medicine. Medical Subject Headings. 2004. November 17, 200Nlm.nih.gov: ''Asian Continental Ancestry Group'' is also used for categorical purpos ...
now form the second-largest ethnic group, making up nearly one-third of the population. Auckland is home to the largest ethnic
Polynesia Polynesia () "many" and νῆσος () "island"), to, Polinisia; mi, Porinihia; haw, Polenekia; fj, Polinisia; sm, Polenisia; rar, Porinetia; ty, Pōrīnetia; tvl, Polenisia; tkl, Polenihia (, ) is a subregion of Oceania, made up of ...
n population of any city in the world, with a sizable population of
Pacific Islander Pacific Islanders, Pasifika, Pasefika, or rarely Pacificers are the peoples of the Pacific Islands. As an ethnic/ racial term, it is used to describe the original peoples—inhabitants and diasporas—of any of the three major subregions of O ...
s ( Pasifika) and indigenous
Māori people The Māori (, ) are the indigenous Polynesian people of mainland New Zealand (). Māori originated with settlers from East Polynesia, who arrived in New Zealand in several waves of canoe voyages between roughly 1320 and 1350. Over severa ...
. A study from 2016 showed Auckland has the fourth largest foreign-born population in the world, only behind
Dubai Dubai (, ; ar, wikt:دبي, دبي, translit=Dubayy, , ) is the List of cities in the United Arab Emirates#Major cities, most populous city in the United Arab Emirates (UAE) and the capital of the Emirate of Dubai, the most populated of the 7 ...
,
Toronto Toronto ( ; or ) is the capital city of the Canadian province of Ontario. With a recorded population of 2,794,356 in 2021, it is the most populous city in Canada and the fourth most populous city in North America. The city is the anch ...
and
Brussels Brussels (french: Bruxelles or ; nl, Brussel ), officially the Brussels-Capital Region (All text and all but one graphic show the English name as Brussels-Capital Region.) (french: link=no, Région de Bruxelles-Capitale; nl, link=no, Bruss ...
, with 39% of its residents born overseas. At the 2018 census, 647,811 people (48.1%) living in the Auckland urban area were European/Pākehā, 424,917 (31.6%) were Asian, 235,086 (17.5%) were Pacific peoples, 154,620 (11.5%) were Māori, 33,672 (2.5%) were Middle Eastern, Latin American and/or African (MELAA), and 13,914 (1.0%) were other ethnicities (totals add to more than 100% since people could identify with multiple ethnicities). Immigration to New Zealand is heavily concentrated towards Auckland (partly for job market reasons). This strong focus on Auckland has led the immigration services to award extra points towards immigration visa requirements for people intending to move to other parts of New Zealand. Immigration from overseas into Auckland is partially offset by net emigration of people from Auckland to other regions of New Zealand, mainly Waikato and Bay of Plenty. In 2021 and 2022, Auckland recorded its only decreases in population, primarily due to the
COVID-19 pandemic The COVID-19 pandemic, also known as the coronavirus pandemic, is an ongoing global pandemic of coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) caused by severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2). The novel virus was first identi ...
and the associated lack of international migration. At the 2018 Census, 41.6 percent of the Auckland region's population were born overseas; in the local board areas of Upper Harbour, Waitemata, Puketapapa and Howick, overseas-born residents outnumbered those born in New Zealand. Auckland is home to over half (50.7 percent) of New Zealand's overseas-born population, including 70 percent of the country's Pacific Island and Northeast Asian-born populations, and 61 percent of its Middle Eastern and North African-born population, and 60 percent of its Southern and Central Asian-born population.


Religion

Around 48.5 percent of Aucklanders at the 2013 census affiliated with Christianity and 11.7 percent affiliated with non-Christian religions, while 37.8 percent of the population were
irreligious Irreligion or nonreligion is the absence or rejection of religion, or indifference to it. Irreligion takes many forms, ranging from the casual and unaware to full-fledged philosophies such as atheism and agnosticism, secular humanism and anti ...
and 3.8 percent objected to answering.
Roman Catholicism The Catholic Church, also known as the Roman Catholic Church, is the largest Christian church, with 1.3 billion baptized Catholics worldwide . It is among the world's oldest and largest international institutions, and has played a ...
is the largest Christian denomination with 13.3 percent affiliating, followed by
Anglicanism Anglicanism is a Western Christian tradition that has developed from the practices, liturgy, and identity of the Church of England following the English Reformation, in the context of the Protestant Reformation in Europe. It is one of t ...
(9.1 percent) and
Presbyterianism Presbyterianism is a part of the Reformed tradition within Protestantism that broke from the Roman Catholic Church in Scotland by John Knox, who was a priest at St. Giles Cathedral (Church of Scotland). Presbyterian churches derive their n ...
(7.4 percent). Recent immigration from Asia has added to the religious diversity of the city, increasing the number of people affiliating with
Buddhism Buddhism ( , ), also known as Buddha Dharma and Dharmavinaya (), is an Indian religion or philosophical tradition based on teachings attributed to the Buddha. It originated in northern India as a -movement in the 5th century BCE, and ...
,
Hinduism Hinduism () is an Indian religion or '' dharma'', a religious and universal order or way of life by which followers abide. As a religion, it is the world's third-largest, with over 1.2–1.35 billion followers, or 15–16% of the global p ...
,
Islam Islam (; ar, ۘالِإسلَام, , ) is an Abrahamic monotheistic religion centred primarily around the Quran, a religious text considered by Muslims to be the direct word of God (or '' Allah'') as it was revealed to Muhammad, the ...
and
Sikhism Sikhism (), also known as Sikhi ( pa, ਸਿੱਖੀ ', , from pa, ਸਿੱਖ, lit=disciple', 'seeker', or 'learner, translit=Sikh, label=none),''Sikhism'' (commonly known as ''Sikhī'') originated from the word ''Sikh'', which comes fro ...
, although there are no figures on religious attendance. There is also a small, long-established
Jewish Jews ( he, יְהוּדִים, , ) or Jewish people are an ethnoreligious group and nation originating from the Israelites Israelite origins and kingdom: "The first act in the long drama of Jewish history is the age of the Israelites""The ...
community.


Future growth

Auckland is experiencing substantial population growth via immigration (two-thirds of growth) and natural population increases (one-third), and is set to grow to an estimated 1.9 million inhabitants by 2031Executive Summary
(from the Auckland Regional Growth Strategy document, ARC, November 1999. Retrieved 14 October 2007.)Mapping Trends in the Auckland Region
Statistics New Zealand, 2010. Retrieved 2010) in a medium-variant scenario. This substantial increase in population will have a huge impact on transport, housing and other infrastructure that are, particularly in the case of housing, that are considered to be under pressure already. The high-variant scenario shows the region's population growing to over two million by 2031. In July 2016, Auckland Council released, as the outcome of a three-year study and public hearings, its Unitary Plan for Auckland. The plan aims to free up to 30 percent more land for housing and allows for greater intensification of the existing urban area, creating 422,000 new dwellings in the next 30 years.


Culture and lifestyle

Auckland's lifestyle is influenced by the fact that while it is 70 percent rural in land area, 90 percent of Aucklanders live in urban areas – though large parts of these areas have a more suburban character than many cities in Europe and Asia. Positive aspects of Auckland life are its mild climate, plentiful employment and educational opportunities, as well as numerous leisure facilities. Meanwhile, traffic problems, the lack of good public transport, and increasing housing costs have been cited by many Aucklanders as among the strongest negative factors of living there,Central Transit Corridor Project
(
Auckland City Auckland City was a territorial authority with city status covering the central isthmus of the urban area of Auckland, New Zealand. It was governed by the Auckland City Council from 1989 to 2010, and as a territory within the wider Auckland Re ...
website, includes mention of effects of transport on public satisfaction) together with crime that has been rising in recent years. Nonetheless, Auckland ranked third in a survey of the quality of life of 215 major cities of the world (2015 data).Quality of Living global city rankings 2009
(
Mercer Management Consulting Oliver Wyman is an American management consulting firm. Founded in New York City in 1984 by former Booz Allen Hamilton partners Alex Oliver and Bill Wyman, the firm has more than 60 offices in Europe, North America, the Middle East, and As ...
. Retrieved 2 May 2009).


Leisure

One of Auckland's nicknames, the "City of Sails", is derived from the popularity of sailing in the region. 135,000
yacht A yacht is a sailing or power vessel used for pleasure, cruising, or racing. There is no standard definition, though the term generally applies to vessels with a cabin intended for overnight use. To be termed a , as opposed to a , such a pleasu ...
s and launches are registered in Auckland, and around 60,500 of the country's 149,900 registered yachtsmen are from Auckland, with about one in three Auckland households owning a boat. The Viaduct Basin, on the western edge of the CBD, hosted three
America's Cup The America's Cup, informally known as the Auld Mug, is a trophy awarded in the sport of sailing. It is the oldest international competition still operating in any sport. America's Cup match races are held between two sailing yachts: one ...
challenges ( 2000 Cup, 2003 Cup and 2021 Cup). The Waitematā Harbour is home to several notable yacht clubs and marinas, including the
Royal New Zealand Yacht Squadron The Royal New Zealand Yacht Squadron is a New Zealand yacht club, and the club behind New Zealand's America's Cup campaigns, under the guises of New Zealand Challenge and Team New Zealand. It held the America's Cup from 1995 until 2003, becomin ...
and
Westhaven Marina Westhaven Marina in Auckland, New Zealand, is the largest yacht marina in the Southern Hemisphere. The marina has nearly two thousand berths and swing moorings, and tends to be continually booked. Auckland, known as 'City of Sails', is gen ...
, the largest of the Southern Hemisphere. The Waitematā Harbour has several swimming beaches, including Mission Bay and
Kohimarama Kohimarama is a coastal residential Auckland suburb, located to the east of the city. Kohimarama is situated between Mission Bay and St Heliers and has an accessible beach with a boardwalk and green recreational spaces located amongst residen ...
on the south side of the harbour, and Stanley Bay on the north side. On the eastern coastline of the North Shore, where the Rangitoto Channel divides the inner Hauraki Gulf islands from the mainland, there are popular swimming beaches at Cheltenham and Narrow Neck in Devonport,
Takapuna Takapuna is a suburb located on the North Shore of Auckland, New Zealand. The suburb is situated at the beginning of a south-east-facing peninsula forming the northern side of the Waitematā Harbour. While very small in terms of population, it ...
, Milford, and the various beaches further north in the area known as East Coast Bays. The west coast has popular surf beaches such as Piha, Muriwai and Te Henga (Bethells Beach). The Whangaparaoa Peninsula,
Orewa Orewa is a suburb of Auckland, New Zealand’s largest city. It lies on the Hibiscus Coast, just north of the base of the Whangaparāoa Peninsula and 40 kilometres north of central Auckland. It is a popular holiday destination. The Northern ...
,
Omaha Omaha ( ) is the largest city in the U.S. state of Nebraska and the county seat of Douglas County. Omaha is in the Midwestern United States on the Missouri River, about north of the mouth of the Platte River. The nation's 39th-largest c ...
and
Pakiri Pakiri is a locality in Auckland, in the former Rodney District of New Zealand. Leigh is about to the south-east. The Pakiri River flows through the area and into the Hauraki Gulf to the north-east. The area is named for the Ngāti Wai chief, ...
, to the north of the main urban area, are also nearby. Many Auckland beaches are patrolled by surf lifesaving clubs, such as
Piha Surf Life Saving Club Piha Surf Life Saving Club (sometimes called Piha Lifeguard Service) is a surf lifesaving club for the southern section of Piha, on the west coast of Auckland, New Zealand, some 45 km from the Auckland City centre. The patrol was featured i ...
the home of
Piha Rescue ''Piha Rescue'' is a New Zealand reality series following the daily actions of the Piha Surf Life Saving Club lifeguards on the famous Piha surf beach. Piha is one of the many beaches located on the West Coast near Auckland. ''Piha Rescue'' s ...
. All surf lifesaving clubs are part of the
Surf Life Saving Northern Region Surf Life Saving Northern Region is the largest of four regions that make up Surf Life Saving New Zealand. As of the 2021/2022 season, it is made up of 18 clubs that look after 22 patrol locations from Ahipara to Raglan on the West Coast and from ...
. Queen Street, Britomart,
Ponsonby Road Ponsonby is an inner-city suburb of Auckland located 2 km west of the Auckland CBD. The suburb is oriented along a ridge running north–south, which is followed by the main street of the suburb, Ponsonby Road. A predominantly upper-middle ...
, Karangahape Road, Newmarket and Parnell are major retail areas. Major markets include those held in
Ōtara Ōtara is a suburb of South Auckland, New Zealand (formerly Manukau City), situated 18 kilometres to the southeast of the Auckland CBD. Ōtara lies near the head of the Tamaki River (actually an arm of the Hauraki Gulf), which extends south tow ...
and Avondale on weekend mornings. A number of shopping centres are located in the middle- and outer-suburbs, with
Westfield Newmarket Westfield Newmarket is a shopping centre in Newmarket, a central suburb of Auckland, New Zealand. The centre initially opened in the 1980s; in early 2018, the centre closed for a major re-build and expansion; it re-opened in August 2019 after a ...
, Sylvia Park,
Botany Town Centre Botany Town Centre is a large Shopping center, shopping mall and Lifestyle center, lifestyle centre located in Auckland, New Zealand. It has more than 200 stores spread across three complexes, including restaurants and entertainment buildings suc ...
and
Westfield Albany Westfield Albany is a shopping centre in the Auckland suburb of Albany, New Zealand, opposite the Albany Lakes Civic Park. It is majority owned (51%) by Scentre Group with the remainder owned by the Singapore Government's GIC. Until 2014 it w ...
being the largest.


Arts

A number of arts events are held in Auckland, including the Auckland Festival, the Auckland Triennial, the New Zealand International Comedy Festival, and the
New Zealand International Film Festival New is an adjective referring to something recently made, discovered, or created. New or NEW may refer to: Music * New, singer of K-pop group The Boyz Albums and EPs * ''New'' (album), by Paul McCartney, 2013 * ''New'' (EP), by Regurgitator, ...
. The Auckland Philharmonia Orchestra is the city and region's resident full-time symphony orchestra, performing its own series of concerts and accompanying opera and ballet. Events celebrating the city's cultural diversity include the Pasifika Festival, Polyfest, and the Auckland Lantern Festival, all of which are the largest of their kind in New Zealand. Additionally, Auckland regularly hosts the New Zealand Symphony Orchestra and Royal New Zealand Ballet. Auckland is part of the UNESCO Creative Cities Network in the category of music. Important institutions include the
Auckland Art Gallery Auckland Art Gallery Toi o Tāmaki is the principal public gallery in Auckland, New Zealand. It has the most extensive collection of national and international art in New Zealand and frequently hosts travelling international exhibitions. Set be ...
,
Auckland War Memorial Museum The Auckland War Memorial Museum Tāmaki Paenga Hira (or simply the Auckland Museum) is one of New Zealand's most important museums and war memorials. Its collections concentrate on New Zealand history (and especially the history of the Auckl ...
,
New Zealand Maritime Museum The New Zealand Maritime Museum Hui Te Ananui A Tangaroa is a maritime museum in Auckland, New Zealand. It is located on Hobson Wharf, adjacent to the Viaduct Harbour in central Auckland. It houses exhibitions spanning New Zealand's maritime hist ...
,
National Museum of the Royal New Zealand Navy The Torpedo Bay Navy Museum is the official museum of the Royal New Zealand Navy. It opened in 2010, to replace an earlier naval museum. The museum is in Devonport, Auckland. History The first Royal New Zealand Navy (RNZN) museum was establishe ...
, and the Museum of Transport and Technology. The Auckland Art Gallery is the largest stand-alone gallery in New Zealand with a collection of over 15,000 artworks, including prominent New Zealand and Pacific Island artists, as well as international painting,
sculpture Sculpture is the branch of the visual arts that operates in three dimensions. Sculpture is the three-dimensional art work which is physically presented in the dimensions of height, width and depth. It is one of the plastic arts. Durable ...
and print collections ranging in date from 1376 to the present day. In 2009 the Gallery was promised a gift of fifteen works of art by New York art collectors and philanthropists Julian and Josie Robertson – including well-known paintings by
Paul Cézanne Paul Cézanne ( , , ; ; 19 January 1839 – 22 October 1906) was a French artist and Post-Impressionist painter whose work laid the foundations of the transition from the 19th-century conception of artistic endeavour to a new and radically d ...
,
Pablo Picasso Pablo Ruiz Picasso (25 October 1881 – 8 April 1973) was a Spanish painter, sculptor, printmaker, ceramicist and Scenic design, theatre designer who spent most of his adult life in France. One of the most influential artists of the 20th ce ...
,
Henri Matisse Henri Émile Benoît Matisse (; 31 December 1869 – 3 November 1954) was a French visual artist, known for both his use of colour and his fluid and original draughtsmanship. He was a draughtsman, printmaker, and sculptor, but is known prim ...
,
Paul Gauguin Eugène Henri Paul Gauguin (, ; ; 7 June 1848 – 8 May 1903) was a French Post-Impressionist artist. Unappreciated until after his death, Gauguin is now recognized for his experimental use of colour and Synthetist style that were distinct fr ...
and
Piet Mondrian Pieter Cornelis Mondriaan (), after 1906 known as Piet Mondrian (, also , ; 7 March 1872 – 1 February 1944), was a Dutch painter and art theoretician who is regarded as one of the greatest artists of the 20th century. He is known for being o ...
. This is the largest gift ever made to an art museum in Australasia.


Parks and nature

Auckland Domain The Auckland Domain, also known as Pukekawa / Auckland Domain, is a large park in Auckland, New Zealand. It is the oldest park in the city, and at is one of the largest. Located in the central suburb of Grafton, the park land is the remains o ...
is one of the largest parks in the city, close to the Auckland CBD and having a good view of the
Hauraki Gulf The Hauraki Gulf / Tīkapa Moana is a coastal feature of the North Island of New Zealand. It has an area of 4000 km2,Rangitoto Island. Smaller parks close to the city centre are Albert Park, Myers Park, Western Park and Victoria Park. While most volcanic cones in the
Auckland volcanic field The Auckland volcanic field is an area of monogenetic volcanoes covered by much of the metropolitan area of Auckland, New Zealand's largest city, located in the North Island. The approximately 53 volcanoes in the field have produced a diverse a ...
have been affected by quarrying, many of the remaining cones are now within parks, and retain a more natural character than the surrounding city. Prehistoric earthworks and historic fortifications are in several of these parks, including Maungawhau / Mount Eden, North Head and Maungakiekie / One Tree Hill. Other parks around the city are in Western Springs Reserve, which has a large park bordering the
MOTAT The Museum of Transport and Technology (MOTAT) is a science and technology museum located in Western Springs, Auckland, New Zealand. It is located close to the Western Springs Stadium, Auckland Zoo and the Western Springs Park. The museum has ...
museum and the Auckland Zoo. The
Auckland Botanic Gardens Auckland Botanic Gardens is a botanical garden in the New Zealand city of Auckland. It is located in the suburb of Manurewa, in the Manurewa Local Board Area. The gardens cover , and holds more than 10,000 plants.Auckland Regional Council, Parks ...
are further south, in Manurewa. Ferries provide transport to parks and nature reserves at Devonport, Waiheke Island, Rangitoto Island and Tiritiri Matangi. The
Waitākere Ranges The Waitākere Ranges is a mountain range in New Zealand. Located in West Auckland between metropolitan Auckland and the Tasman Sea, the ranges and its foothills and coasts comprise some of public and private land. The area, traditionally kno ...
Regional Park to the west of Auckland has relatively unspoiled bush territory, as do the Hunua Ranges to the south.


Sport


Major sporting venues

Rugby union Rugby union, commonly known simply as rugby, is a close-contact team sport that originated at Rugby School in the first half of the 19th century. One of the two codes of rugby football, it is based on running with the ball in hand. In it ...
,
cricket Cricket is a bat-and-ball game played between two teams of eleven players on a field at the centre of which is a pitch with a wicket at each end, each comprising two bails balanced on three stumps. The batting side scores runs by st ...
,
rugby league Rugby league football, commonly known as just rugby league and sometimes football, footy, rugby or league, is a full-contact sport played by two teams of thirteen players on a rectangular field measuring 68 metres (75 yards) wide and 112 ...
,
association football Association football, more commonly known as football or soccer, is a team sport played between two teams of 11 players who primarily use their feet to propel the ball around a rectangular field called a pitch. The objective of the game is ...
(soccer) and
netball Netball is a ball sport played on a court by two teams of seven players. It is among a rare number of sports which have been created exclusively for female competitors. The sport is played on indoor and outdoor netball courts and is specifical ...
are widely played and followed. Auckland has a considerable number of rugby union and cricket grounds, and venues for association football, netball, rugby league, basketball, hockey, ice hockey, motorsports, tennis, badminton, swimming, rowing, golf and many other sports. There are also three racecourses within the city - ( Ellerslie and Avondale for thoroughbred racing, and Alexandra Park for
harness racing Harness racing is a form of horse racing in which the horses race at a specific gait (a trot or a pace). They usually pull a two-wheeled cart called a sulky, or spider, or chariot occupied by a driver. In Europe, and less frequently in Austral ...
). A fourth racecourse is located at Pukekohe, straddling the boundary between Auckland and the neighbouring Waikato region.
Greyhound racing Greyhound racing is an organized, competitive sport in which greyhounds are raced around a track. There are two forms of greyhound racing, track racing (normally around an oval track) and coursing; the latter is now banned in most countries. Tr ...
is held at Manukau Stadium. *
Eden Park Eden Park is New Zealand's largest sports stadium, with a capacity of 50,000. Located in central Auckland, New Zealand's largest city, it is three kilometres southwest of the Auckland CBD, CBD, on the boundary between the suburbs of Mount E ...
is the city's primary stadium and a frequent home for international
rugby union Rugby union, commonly known simply as rugby, is a close-contact team sport that originated at Rugby School in the first half of the 19th century. One of the two codes of rugby football, it is based on running with the ball in hand. In it ...
and
cricket Cricket is a bat-and-ball game played between two teams of eleven players on a field at the centre of which is a pitch with a wicket at each end, each comprising two bails balanced on three stumps. The batting side scores runs by st ...
matches, in addition to
Super Rugby Super Rugby is a men's professional rugby union club competition involving teams from Australia, Fiji, New Zealand, and the Pacific Islands. It previously included teams from Argentina, Japan, and South Africa. Building on various Southern Hem ...
matches where the
Blues Blues is a music genre and musical form which originated in the Deep South of the United States around the 1860s. Blues incorporated spirituals, work songs, field hollers, shouts, chants, and rhymed simple narrative ballads from the ...
play their home games. It is also the home ground of
Auckland Auckland (pronounced ) ( mi, Tāmaki Makaurau) is a large metropolitan city in the North Island of New Zealand. The most populous urban area in the country and the fifth largest city in Oceania, Auckland has an urban population of about I ...
in the Mitre 10 Cup, and
Auckland Auckland (pronounced ) ( mi, Tāmaki Makaurau) is a large metropolitan city in the North Island of New Zealand. The most populous urban area in the country and the fifth largest city in Oceania, Auckland has an urban population of about I ...
in domestic cricket. * Mt Smart Stadium is used mainly for
rugby league Rugby league football, commonly known as just rugby league and sometimes football, footy, rugby or league, is a full-contact sport played by two teams of thirteen players on a rectangular field measuring 68 metres (75 yards) wide and 112 ...
matches and is home to the
New Zealand Warriors The New Zealand Warriors are a professional rugby league football club based in Auckland, New Zealand that competes in the National Rugby League (NRL) premiership and is the League's only team from outside Australia. They were formed in 1995 as ...
of the
NRL The National Rugby League (NRL) is an Australasian rugby league club competition which contains clubs from New South Wales, Queensland, Victoria, the Australian Capital Territory and New Zealand. The NRL formed in 1998 as a joint partnership ...
, and is also used for concerts, previously hosting the Auckland leg of the Big Day Out music festival every January as well as the
1990 Commonwealth Games The 1990 Commonwealth Games ( mi, 1990 Taumāhekeheke Commonwealth) were held in Auckland, New Zealand from 24 January – 3 February 1990. It was the 14th Commonwealth Games, and part of New Zealand's 1990 sesquicentennial celebrations. Partic ...
. *
North Harbour Stadium North Harbour Stadium is a stadium situated in Albany, in North Shore City, New Zealand. It was opened in 1997, after nearly a decade of discussion, planning and construction. Rugby union, association football, rugby league, and baseball are ...
is mainly used for
rugby union Rugby union, commonly known simply as rugby, is a close-contact team sport that originated at Rugby School in the first half of the 19th century. One of the two codes of rugby football, it is based on running with the ball in hand. In it ...
and
football (soccer) Association football, more commonly known as football or soccer, is a team sport played between two teams of 11 players who primarily use their feet to propel the ball around a rectangular field called a pitch. The objective of the game is ...
matches, but is also used for concerts. It is the home ground for North Harbour in the Mitre 10 Cup. In 2019 it became the home field of New Zealand's only professional baseball team,
Auckland Tuatara The Auckland Tuatara is a professional baseball team in the Australian Baseball League based in Auckland, New Zealand. They are the only team from New Zealand to compete in the ABL, and one of two expansion teams that entered the league in the ...
. *
ASB Tennis Centre The ASB Tennis Centre is a tennis facility located in the Parnell district of Auckland, New Zealand. The centre was opened on 18 November 1922 by the Auckland Lawn Tennis Association (now Tennis Auckland) on grounds leased from the Auckland City ...
is Auckland's primary tennis venue, hosting international tournaments for men and women ( ASB Classic) in January each year. ASB Bank took over the sponsorship of the men's tournament from 2016, the event formerly being known as the Heineken Open. * Spark Arena, previously known as Vector Arena is an indoor auditorium primarily used for concerts and is the home of the New Zealand Breakers basketball team. It also hosts international
netball Netball is a ball sport played on a court by two teams of seven players. It is among a rare number of sports which have been created exclusively for female competitors. The sport is played on indoor and outdoor netball courts and is specifical ...
. * Trusts Arena is an indoor venue which primarily hosts netball matches, and is the home of the Northern Mystics of the ANZ Premiership. It is also where the 2007 World Netball Championships were held. Since 2015, an annual event on the
World Series of Darts The World Series of Darts is a series of darts tournaments organised by the Professional Darts Corporation. Beginning in 2013, the World Series has comprised between two and seven tournaments across the world, where a mixture of the top-ranked P ...
has been held there. *
North Shore Events Centre The Eventfinda Stadium (originally known as the North Shore Events Centre) is an indoor arena located in the North Shore City suburb of Wairau Valley, Auckland, New Zealand. The arena opened in 1992 and has a capacity of 4,179. It primarily h ...
is an indoor arena which is used for a variety of sporting events, as well as concerts and expos. It was formerly home to the New Zealand Breakers and hosted much of the
2009 FIBA Under-19 World Championship The 2009 FIBA Under-19 World Championship (Maori: 2009 FIBA I-Raro I Te 19 Tau Toa o Te Ao) was the 9th edition of the FIBA U19 World Championship, the biennial international men's youth basketball championship contested by the U19 national team ...
. *
Vodafone Events Centre Due Drop Events Centre (previously known as the Vodafone Events Centre and TelstraClear Pacific Events Centre) is a multi-purpose event centre located in Manukau, Auckland, New Zealand (suburb of the former Manukau City), with an indoor arena, t ...
is an indoor arena which hosts a variety of events, and is the home of the Northern Stars netball team of the ANZ Premiership. *
Pukekohe Park Raceway Pukekohe Park is a horse racing, motor racing, and community events facility located in Pukekohe, New Zealand, approximately south of the Auckland CBD, in the Auckland Region of the North Island. The venue, owned by Counties Racing Club Inc. i ...
is a motorsports and thoroughbred horse-racing venue that hosts a leg of the V8 Supercars series annually, along with other motorsports events. The most important horse-racing meeting is held annually at the end of November, featuring the Group 2 Counties Cup and three other stakes races. *
Western Springs Stadium Western Springs Stadium is a stadium in Auckland, New Zealand. Built within a natural amphitheatre, it is primarily used for rugby union matches during the winter and for speedway during the summer. It is also occasionally used for large conce ...
has since 1929 hosted speedway racing during the summer. It also hosts concerts, with many of New Zealand's largest-ever concerts having taken place at the stadium. It is also the home of
Ponsonby RFC Ponsonby District Rugby Football Club is a rugby union club based in Auckland, New Zealand. The club was established in 1874 and is affiliated with the Auckland Rugby Football Union. Ponsonby is the oldest extant member of the Auckland union, ...
.


Major teams

Sporting teams based in Auckland who compete in national or trans-national competitions are as follows: * Formerly Auckland Blues, the
Blues Blues is a music genre and musical form which originated in the Deep South of the United States around the 1860s. Blues incorporated spirituals, work songs, field hollers, shouts, chants, and rhymed simple narrative ballads from the ...
compete in
Super Rugby Super Rugby is a men's professional rugby union club competition involving teams from Australia, Fiji, New Zealand, and the Pacific Islands. It previously included teams from Argentina, Japan, and South Africa. Building on various Southern Hem ...
. Auckland is also home to three Mitre 10 Cup rugby union teams:
Auckland Auckland (pronounced ) ( mi, Tāmaki Makaurau) is a large metropolitan city in the North Island of New Zealand. The most populous urban area in the country and the fifth largest city in Oceania, Auckland has an urban population of about I ...
, North Harbour and Counties Manukau. * Previously Auckland Warriors, the
New Zealand Warriors The New Zealand Warriors are a professional rugby league football club based in Auckland, New Zealand that competes in the National Rugby League (NRL) premiership and is the League's only team from outside Australia. They were formed in 1995 as ...
are a team in Australia's
National Rugby League The National Rugby League (NRL) is an Australasian rugby league club competition which contains clubs from New South Wales, Queensland, Victoria, the Australian Capital Territory and New Zealand. The NRL formed in 1998 as a joint partnership ...
competition. They play their home games at Mt Smart Stadium. The
Akarana Falcons The Auckland rugby league team is the team which traditionally represents all of the clubs which play in the Auckland Rugby League competition. As well as a senior men's team there are also Auckland representative teams throughout the various a ...
and Counties Manukau compete in the National Competition. * Auckland's men's first class cricket team, the Auckland Aces, play their home matches at
Eden Park Eden Park is New Zealand's largest sports stadium, with a capacity of 50,000. Located in central Auckland, New Zealand's largest city, it is three kilometres southwest of the Auckland CBD, CBD, on the boundary between the suburbs of Mount E ...
, generally on the outer oval. The women's team, the
Auckland Hearts The Auckland Hearts is the women's representative cricket team for the New Zealand region of Auckland. They play their home games at Eden Park Outer Oval. They compete in the Hallyburton Johnstone Shield one-day competition and the Women's Su ...
, play at Melville Park in Epsom. *
Auckland City Auckland City was a territorial authority with city status covering the central isthmus of the urban area of Auckland, New Zealand. It was governed by the Auckland City Council from 1989 to 2010, and as a territory within the wider Auckland Re ...
, Waitakere United, and Eastern Suburbs football teams play in the
ISPS Handa Premiership The New Zealand Football Championship ( mi, Te Whakataetae Whutupaoro a Aotearoa) was a men's association football league at the top of the New Zealand league system. Founded in 2004, the New Zealand Football Championship was the successor to a ...
. * Northern Mystics and Northern Stars are netball teams who compete in the ANZ Premiership. The Mystics play their home games at
Trusts Stadium The Trusts Arena is an indoor arena located in Henderson, Auckland, New Zealand. It is a multi-purpose stadium that primarily holds sports events and music concerts. The Arena was opened by then Prime Minister of New Zealand Helen Clark on 11 ...
and the Stars at the
Vodafone Events Centre Due Drop Events Centre (previously known as the Vodafone Events Centre and TelstraClear Pacific Events Centre) is a multi-purpose event centre located in Manukau, Auckland, New Zealand (suburb of the former Manukau City), with an indoor arena, t ...
. * New Zealand Breakers are a basketball team who compete in the Australian National Basketball League and play their home games primarily at Spark Arena. The
Auckland Tuatara The Auckland Tuatara is a professional baseball team in the Australian Baseball League based in Auckland, New Zealand. They are the only team from New Zealand to compete in the ABL, and one of two expansion teams that entered the league in the ...
and
Franklin Bulls The Franklin Bulls are a New Zealand basketball team based in Pukekohe, Auckland Auckland (pronounced ) ( mi, Tāmaki Makaurau) is a large metropolitan city in the North Island of New Zealand. The most populous urban area in the country ...
play in the
New Zealand National Basketball League The National Basketball League (NBL) is a men's semi-professional basketball league in New Zealand. In 1981, a group of club and provincial teams came together to create a men's national basketball league. The following year, the league was b ...
. *
Botany Swarm The Botany Swarm is a semi-professional ice hockey team based in East Auckland, New Zealand. The team is a member of the New Zealand Ice Hockey League (NZIHL). The team was founded in 2005 as the South Auckland Swarm. Their name was changed pri ...
and
West Auckland Admirals The West Auckland Admirals is an ice hockey team based in Auckland, New Zealand and are members of the New Zealand Ice Hockey League. The Team has always been based out of the Paradice Ice in Avondale, Auckland which in itself has a proud 41-year ...
compete in the
New Zealand Ice Hockey League The NZIHL is New Zealand’s national ice hockey league. It is an amateur league that was formed in 2005 to develop the sport in New Zealand and to give the top players regular competition against each other to improve the skill level of the game ...
. *
Auckland Tuatara The Auckland Tuatara is a professional baseball team in the Australian Baseball League based in Auckland, New Zealand. They are the only team from New Zealand to compete in the ABL, and one of two expansion teams that entered the league in the ...
compete in the Australian Baseball League.


Major events

Annual sporting events held in Auckland include: * The ATP Auckland Open and the
WTA Auckland Open The WTA Auckland Open (currently sponsored by ASB Bank and called the ASB Classic) is a professional women's tennis tournament in Auckland, New Zealand. The tournament is played annually, in the first week of January, at the ASB Tennis Centre ...
(both known for sponsorship reasons as the ASB Classic), are men's and women's tennis tournaments, respectively, which are held annually at the
ASB Tennis Centre The ASB Tennis Centre is a tennis facility located in the Parnell district of Auckland, New Zealand. The centre was opened on 18 November 1922 by the Auckland Lawn Tennis Association (now Tennis Auckland) on grounds leased from the Auckland City ...
in January. The men's tournament has been held since 1956, and the women's tournament since 1986. * The
Auckland Super400 The Auckland SuperSprint was an annual motor racing event for Supercars, held at Pukekohe Park Raceway in Pukekohe, New Zealand. The event was a regular part of the Supercars Championship—and its previous incarnations, the Shell Championship Se ...
(known for sponsorship reasons as the ITM Auckland Super 400) is a
Supercars Championship The Supercars Championship is a touring car racing category in Australia, running as an International Series under Fédération Internationale de l'Automobile (FIA) regulations, governing the sport. Supercars events take place in all Australia ...
race held at
Pukekohe Park Raceway Pukekohe Park is a horse racing, motor racing, and community events facility located in Pukekohe, New Zealand, approximately south of the Auckland CBD, in the Auckland Region of the North Island. The venue, owned by Counties Racing Club Inc. i ...
. The race has been held intermittently since 1996 * The
Auckland Marathon The Barfoot & Thompson Auckland Marathon and Half Marathon is an annual running event held in Auckland, New Zealand. The event is held in October or early November of each year, which is during the spring in New Zealand. The main feature of the ...
(and half-marathon) is an annual
marathon The marathon is a long-distance foot race with a distance of , usually run as a road race, but the distance can be covered on trail routes. The marathon can be completed by running or with a run/walk strategy. There are also wheelchair div ...
. It is the largest marathon in New Zealand and draws in the vicinity of 15,000 entrants. It has been held annually since 1992. * The Auckland Anniversary Regatta is a sailing regatta which has been held annually since 1840, the year of Auckland's founding. It is held over Auckland Anniversary weekend and attracts several hundred entrants each year. It is the largest such regatta, and the oldest sporting event, in New Zealand. *
Auckland Cup Week Auckland Cup Week is one of New Zealand's major annual thoroughbred racing carnivals and is the country's richest offering stakes in excess of NZ$2.2 million. Held in Auckland in early March, the carnival comprises two days of racing and entertai ...
is an annual
horse racing Horse racing is an equestrian performance sport, typically involving two or more horses ridden by jockeys (or sometimes driven without riders) over a set distance for competition. It is one of the most ancient of all sports, as its basic pr ...
carnival, which has been held in early March since its inception in 2006. It is the richest such carnival in New Zealand, and incorporates several of New Zealand's major thoroughbred horse races, including the
Auckland Cup The Auckland Cup is an annual race held by the Auckland Racing Club (ARC). It is an Open Handicap for thoroughbred racehorses competed on the flat turf over 3200 metres (two miles) at Ellerslie Racecourse in Auckland, New Zealand. The race was ...
, held since 1874, and
New Zealand Derby The New Zealand Derby is a set-weights Thoroughbred horse race for three-year-olds, run over a distance of 2,400 metres (12 furlongs) at Ellerslie Racecourse in Auckland, New Zealand. It is held on the first Saturday in March, as the opening day o ...
, held since 1875. * The
Auckland Harbour Crossing Swim The Auckland Harbour Crossing, also called the Sovereign Harbour Crossing after the sponsoring company, is an annual ocean swim event / race in Auckland, New Zealand. It involves a swim across the Waitematā Harbour, with the route going from ...
is an annual summer swimming event. The swim crosses the Waitematā Harbour, from the North Shore to the Viaduct Basin covering 2.8 km (often with some considerable counter-currents). The event has been held since 2004 and attracts over a thousand mostly amateur entrants each year, making it New Zealand's largest ocean swim. * Round the Bays is an annual fun-run. The course travels eastwards along the Auckland waterfront, with the run starting in the CBD and ending in St Heliers, the total length being . It is the largest fun-run in New Zealand and attracts tens of thousands of entrants each year, with the number of entrants reported to have peaked at 80,000 in 1982. It has been held annually since 1972. Major events previously held in Auckland include the 1950 British Empire Games and the Commonwealth Games in 1990,
What's Doing In; Auckland
'' – ''
The New York Times ''The New York Times'' (''the Times'', ''NYT'', or the Gray Lady) is a daily newspaper based in New York City with a worldwide readership reported in 2020 to comprise a declining 840,000 paid print subscribers, and a growing 6 million paid ...
'', 25 November 1990 and a number of matches (including the semi-finals and the final) of the
1987 Rugby World Cup The 1987 Rugby World Cup was the first Rugby World Cup. It was co-hosted by New Zealand and Australia – New Zealand hosted 21 matches (17 pool stage matches, two quarter-finals, the third-place play-off and the final) while Australia hosted 11 ...
and
2011 Rugby World Cup The 2011 Rugby World Cup was the seventh Rugby World Cup, a quadrennial international rugby union competition inaugurated in 1987. The International Rugby Board (IRB) selected New Zealand as the host country in preference to Japan and South ...
. Auckland hosted the
America's Cup The America's Cup, informally known as the Auld Mug, is a trophy awarded in the sport of sailing. It is the oldest international competition still operating in any sport. America's Cup match races are held between two sailing yachts: one ...
and Louis Vuitton Cup in 2000, 2003, and 2021. The 2007 World Netball Championships were held at the
Trusts Stadium The Trusts Arena is an indoor arena located in Henderson, Auckland, New Zealand. It is a multi-purpose stadium that primarily holds sports events and music concerts. The Arena was opened by then Prime Minister of New Zealand Helen Clark on 11 ...
. The ITU World Triathlon Series held a Grand Final event in the Auckland CBD from 2012 until 2015. The
NRL Auckland Nines The NRL Nines is a rugby league nines competition, normally held during the NRL preseason each year. It was initially held in Auckland, New Zealand, between 2014 and 2017 before going on hiatus. Returning in 2020, hosting duties moved to Pert ...
was a rugby league nines preseason competition played at
Eden Park Eden Park is New Zealand's largest sports stadium, with a capacity of 50,000. Located in central Auckland, New Zealand's largest city, it is three kilometres southwest of the Auckland CBD, CBD, on the boundary between the suburbs of Mount E ...
from 2014 to 2017. The 2017
World Masters Games The World Masters Games is an international multi-sport event held every four years which, in terms of competitor numbers, has developed into the largest of its kind. Governed by the International Masters Games Association (IMGA), the World Mas ...
were held at a number of venues around Auckland. The Auckland Darts Masters was held annually at
The Trusts Arena The Trusts Arena is an indoor arena located in Henderson, Auckland, New Zealand. It is a multi-purpose stadium that primarily holds sports events and music concerts. The Arena was opened by then Prime Minister of New Zealand Helen Clark on 11 ...
from 2015 to 2018.


Architecture

Auckland comprises a diversity of architectural styles owing to its early beginnings as a settlement, to the Victorian era right through to the contemporary era of the late 20th century. The city has legislation in effect to protect the remaining heritage, with the key piece of legislation being the Resource Management Act of 1991. Prepared under this legislation is the Auckland Unitary Plan which indicates how land can be used or developed. Prominent historic buildings in Auckland include the Dilworth Building, the
Auckland Ferry Terminal The Auckland Ferry Terminal, also called the Downtown Ferry Terminal, is the hub of the Auckland ferry network, which connects the Auckland CBD with suburbs in North Shore, West Auckland, and South Auckland, and islands in the Hauraki Gulf. Th ...
, Guardian Trust Building, Old Customs House, Landmark House, the Auckland Town Hall and the Britomart Transport Centre–many of these are located on the main thoroughfare of Queen Street.


Economy

Auckland is the major economic and financial centre of New Zealand. It has an advanced
market economy A market economy is an economic system in which the decisions regarding investment, production and distribution to the consumers are guided by the price signals created by the forces of supply and demand, where all suppliers and consumers ...
with strengths in finance, commerce, and tourism. Most major international corporations have an Auckland office; the most expensive office space is around lower Queen Street and the Viaduct Basin in the Auckland CBD, where many financial and business services are located, which make up a large percentage of the CBD economy.Auckland's CBD at a glance
(CBD website of the
Auckland City Council Auckland City Council was the local government authority for Auckland City, New Zealand, from 1871 to 1 November 2010, when it and Auckland's six other city and district councils were amalgamated to form the Auckland Council. It was an elected b ...
) The largest commercial and industrial areas of the Auckland Region are Auckland CBD and the western parts of
Manukau Manukau (), or Manukau Central, is a suburb of South Auckland, New Zealand, centred on the Manukau City Centre business district. It is located 23 kilometres south of the Auckland Central Business District, west of the Southern Motorway, so ...
, mostly bordering the Manukau Harbour and the Tāmaki River estuary. Auckland is classified by the
Globalization and World Cities Research Network The Globalization and World Cities Research Network (GaWC) is a think tank that studies the relationships between world cities in the context of globalization. It is based in the geography department of Loughborough University in Leicestershir ...
as a Beta + world city because of its importance in commerce,
the arts The arts are a very wide range of human practices of creative expression, storytelling and cultural participation. They encompass multiple diverse and plural modes of thinking, doing and being, in an extremely broad range of media. Both ...
, and education. According to the 2013 census, the primary employment industries of Auckland residents are professional, scientific and technical services (11.4 percent), manufacturing (9.9 percent), retail trade (9.7 percent), health care and social assistance (9.1 percent), and education and training (8.3 percent). Manufacturing is the largest employer in the Henderson-Massey, Howick, Māngere-Ōtāhuhu, Ōtara-Papatoetoe, Manurewa and Papakura local board areas, retail trade is the largest employer in the Whau local board area, while professional, scientific and technical services are the largest employer in the remaining urban local board areas. The sub-national GDP of the Auckland region was estimated at NZ$122 billion in 2022, almost 40 percent of New Zealand's national GDP. The per-capita GDP of Auckland was estimated at $71,978, the third-highest in the country after the Taranaki and Wellington regions, and above the national average of $62,705. In 2014, the median personal income (for all persons older than 15 years of age, per year) in Auckland was estimated at $41,860, behind only Wellington.Comparison of New Zealand's cities
(from ENZ emigration consulting)


Housing

Housing varies considerably between some suburbs having state owned housing in the lower income neighbourhoods, to palatial waterfront estates, especially in areas close to the Waitematā Harbour. Traditionally, the most common residence of Aucklanders was a standalone dwelling on a '
quarter acre In Australian and New Zealand English, a quarter acre is a term for a suburban plot of land. Traditionally, Australians and New Zealanders aspired to own a 3- or 4-bedroom house or bungalow on a section of around a quarter of an acre (about 1,000 s ...
' (1,000 m2). However, subdividing such properties with 'infill housing' has long been the norm. Auckland's housing stock has become more diverse in recent decades, with many more apartments being built since the 1970s – particularly since the 1990s in the CBD. Nevertheless, the majority of Aucklanders live in single dwelling housing and are expected to continue to do so – even with most of future urban growth being through intensification. Auckland's housing is amongst the least affordable in the world, based on comparing average house prices with average household income levels and house prices have grown way well above the rate of inflation in recent decades. In August 2022, the Real Estate Institute of New Zealand (REINZ) reported the median house price in the Auckland region was $1,100,000, ranging from $900,000 in the former Papakura District area to $1,285,000 in the former North Shore City area, This is compared to a median price of $700,000 outside of Auckland. There is significant public debate around why Auckland's housing is so expensive, often referring to a lack of land supply, the easy availability of credit for residential investment and Auckland's high level of liveability. In some areas, the Victorian
villa A villa is a type of house that was originally an ancient Roman upper class country house. Since its origins in the Roman villa, the idea and function of a villa have evolved considerably. After the fall of the Roman Republic, villas became ...
s have been torn down to make way for redevelopment. The demolition of the older houses is being combated through increased heritage protection for older parts of the city. Auckland has been described as having 'the most extensive range of timbered housing with its classical details and mouldings in the world', many of them Victorian-Edwardian style houses.


Housing crisis

In the lead-up to 2010, a housing crisis began in Auckland with the market not being able to sustain the demand for affordable homes. The Housing Accords and Special Housing Areas Act 2013 mandated that a minimum of 10 percent of new builds in certain housing areas be subsidised to make them affordable for buyers who had incomes on par with the national average. In a new subdivision at
Hobsonville Point Hobsonville is a suburb in West Auckland, in the North Island of New Zealand. The area was administered by Waitakere City Council until the council was amalgamated into Auckland Council in 2010. Hobsonville Point, formerly the location of th ...
, 20 percent of new homes were reduced to below $550,000. Some of the demand for new housing at this time was attributed to the 43,000 people who moved into Auckland between June 2014 and June 2015. Research has found that Auckland is set to become even more densely populated in future which could ease the burden by creating higher density housing in the city centre. From around November 2021 to May 2022, house prices dropped 11.68%. It has continued to fall since due to inflation, bank interest rates, and a variety of other factors.


Government


Local

The Auckland Council is the
local authority Local government is a generic term for the lowest tiers of public administration within a particular sovereign state. This particular usage of the word government refers specifically to a level of administration that is both geographically-l ...
with jurisdiction over the city of Auckland, along with surrounding rural areas, parkland, and the islands of the Hauraki Gulf. From 1989 to 2010, Auckland was governed by several city and district councils, with regional oversight by
Auckland Regional Council The Auckland Regional Council (ARC) was the regional council (one of the former local government authorities) of the Auckland Region. Its predecessor the Auckland Regional Authority (ARA) was formed in 1963 and became the ARC in 1989. The ARC ...
. In the late 2000s, New Zealand's central government and parts of Auckland's society felt that this large number of councils, and the lack of strong regional government (with the Auckland Regional Council having only limited powers), were hindering Auckland's progress. A
Royal Commission on Auckland Governance The Royal Commission on Auckland Governance was established by the New Zealand Government to investigate the local government arrangements of Auckland. The Labour Government of the time announced a Royal Commission into the governance of Auc ...
was set up in 2007, and in 2009 it recommended a unified local governance structure for Auckland by amalgamating the councils. The government subsequently announced that a "super city" would be set up with a single mayor by the time of New Zealand's local body elections in 2010. In October 2010, Manukau City mayor Len Brown was elected mayor of the amalgamated
Auckland Council Auckland Council ( mi, Te Kaunihera o Tāmaki Makaurau) is the local government council for the Auckland Region in New Zealand. It is a territorial authority that has the responsibilities, duties and powers of a regional council and so is a ...
. He was re-elected for a second term in October 2013. Brown did not stand for re-election in the 2016 mayoral election, and was succeeded by successful candidate
Phil Goff Philip Bruce Goff (born 22 June 1953) is a New Zealand politician. He was a member of the New Zealand Parliament from 1981 to 1990 and again from 1993 to 2016. He served as leader of the Labour Party and leader of the Opposition between 11 N ...
in October 2016. Twenty councillors make up the remainder of the Auckland Council governing body, elected from thirteen electoral wards.


National

Between 1842 and 1865, Auckland was the capital city of New Zealand. Parliament met in what is now
Old Government House Old Government House may refer to: * Old Government House, Parramatta, Australia * Old Government House, Queensland, Australia * Old Government House, South Australia, Australia * Old Government House, Hobart, Australia * Old Government House, Fre ...
on the
University of Auckland , mottoeng = By natural ability and hard work , established = 1883; years ago , endowment = NZD $293 million (31 December 2021) , budget = NZD $1.281 billion (31 December 2021) , chancellor = Cecilia Tarrant , vice_chancellor = Dawn F ...
's City campus. The capital was moved to the more centrally located
Wellington Wellington ( mi, Te Whanganui-a-Tara or ) is the capital city of New Zealand. It is located at the south-western tip of the North Island, between Cook Strait and the Remutaka Range. Wellington is the second-largest city in New Zealand by ...
in 1865. Auckland, because of its large population, is covered by 22 general electorates and three Māori electorates, each returning one member to the
New Zealand House of Representatives The House of Representatives is the sole chamber of the New Zealand Parliament. The House passes laws, provides ministers to form Cabinet, and supervises the work of government. It is also responsible for adopting the state's budgets and ap ...
. The governing Labour Party holds eleven general electorates and all three Māori electorates; the opposing National Party holds nine general electorates; and ACT and the Greens hold one apiece ( and ).


Other

The administrative offices of the
Government of the Pitcairn Islands The Pitcairn Islands are a British Overseas Territory in the South Pacific Ocean, with a population of about 50. The politics of the islands takes place in a framework of a parliamentary representative democratic dependency, whereby the Mayo ...
is situated in Auckland.


Education


Primary and secondary

The Auckland urban area has 340 primary schools, 80 secondary schools, and 29 composite (primary/secondary combined) schools as of February 2012, catering for nearly quarter of a million students. The majority are state schools, but 63 schools are state-integrated and 39 are private. The city is home to some of the largest schools in terms of students in New Zealand, including
Mt Albert Grammar School Mount Albert Grammar School, commonly known as MAGS, is a co-educational state secondary school in Mount Albert in Auckland, New Zealand. It teaches students in year levels 9 to 13. , Mount Albert Grammar School is the second largest school in ...
, the second largest school in New Zealand with a student population of 3035, and
Rangitoto College Rangitoto College is a state coeducational secondary school, located on the North Shore of Auckland, New Zealand. Serving years 9 to 13, Rangitoto has a school roll of as of making it the largest "brick-and-mortar" school in New Zealand (on ...
in the East Coast Bays area, the largest school in New Zealand with students as of


Tertiary

Auckland has some of the largest universities in the country. Five of New Zealand's eight universities have campuses in Auckland as well as eight of New Zealand's fifteen polytechnics. The
University of Auckland , mottoeng = By natural ability and hard work , established = 1883; years ago , endowment = NZD $293 million (31 December 2021) , budget = NZD $1.281 billion (31 December 2021) , chancellor = Cecilia Tarrant , vice_chancellor = Dawn F ...
,
Auckland University of Technology Auckland University of Technology (AUT) ( mi, Te Wānanga Aronui o Tāmaki Makau Rau) is a university in New Zealand, formed on 1 January 2000 when a former technical college (originally established in 1895) was granted university status. AUT ...
,
Manukau Institute of Technology Established in 1970, Manukau Institute of Technology (MIT) ( mi, Te Whare Takiura o Manukau) is a large Category One institute of technology in Auckland, New Zealand. Category One is the highest possible educational rating as evaluated by the ...
, and
Unitec Institute of Technology Unitec Institute of Technology (Māori: Te Whare Wānanga o Wairaka) is the largest institute of technology in Auckland, New Zealand. 16,844 students study programmes from certificate to postgraduate degree level (levels 1 to 9) across a range of ...
are all based in Auckland. Despite being based in other regions, the
University of Otago , image_name = University of Otago Registry Building2.jpg , image_size = , caption = University clock tower , motto = la, Sapere aude , mottoeng = Dare to be wise , established = 1869; 152 years ago , type = Public research collegiate u ...
,
Victoria University of Wellington Victoria University of Wellington ( mi, Te Herenga Waka) is a university in Wellington, New Zealand. It was established in 1897 by Act of Parliament, and was a constituent college of the University of New Zealand. The university is well know ...
,
Massey University Massey University ( mi, Te Kunenga ki Pūrehuroa) is a university based in Palmerston North, New Zealand, with significant campuses in Albany and Wellington. Massey University has approximately 30,883 students, 13,796 of whom are extramural or ...
, and several polytechnics have satellite campuses in Auckland. Auckland is a major centre of overseas language education, with large numbers of foreign students (particularly East Asians) coming to the city for several months or years to learn English or study at universities – although numbers New Zealand-wide have dropped substantially since peaking in 2003. , there are around 50
New Zealand Qualifications Authority The New Zealand Qualifications Authority (NZQA; mi, Mana Tohu Mātauranga o Aotearoa) is the New Zealand government Crown entity tasked with administering educational assessment and qualifications. It was established by the Education Act 1989 ...
(NZQA) certified schools and institutes teaching English in the Auckland area.


Transport

The State Highway network connects the different parts of Auckland, with
State Highway 1 The following highways are numbered 1. For roads numbered A1, see list of A1 roads. For roads numbered B1, see list of B1 roads. For roads numbered M1, see List of M1 roads. For roads numbered N1, see list of N1 roads. For roads numbere ...
being the major north–south thoroughfare through the city (including both the Northern and Southern Motorways) and the main connection to the adjoining regions of Northland and Waikato. The Northern Busway runs alongside part of the Northern Motorway on the North Shore. Other state highways within Auckland include State Highway 16 (the Northwest Motorway),
State Highway 18 Route 18, or Highway 18, may refer to: International * Asian Highway 18 * European route E18 * European route E018 Argentina * Australia * Waterfall Way Canada * Alberta Highway 18 * British Columbia Highway 18 * Manitoba Highway 18 * Ont ...
(the Upper Harbour Motorway) and State Highway 20 (the Southwest Motorway). State Highway 22 is a non-motorway rural arterial connecting Pukekohe to the Southern Motorway at Drury. The Auckland Harbour Bridge, opened in 1959, is the main connection between the North Shore and the rest of the Auckland region. The bridge provides eight lanes of vehicle traffic and has a moveable median barrier for lane flexibility, but does not provide access for rail, pedestrians or cyclists. The Central Motorway Junction, also called 'Spaghetti Junction' for its complexity, is the intersection between the two major motorways of Auckland (State Highway 1 and State Highway 16). Two of the longest arterial roads within the Auckland Region are Great North Road and Great South Road – the main connections in those directions before the construction of the State Highway network. Numerous arterial roads also provide regional and sub-regional connectivity, with many of these roads (especially on the isthmus) previously used to operate Auckland's former tram network. Auckland has four railway lines (
Western Western may refer to: Places *Western, Nebraska, a village in the US *Western, New York, a town in the US *Western Creek, Tasmania, a locality in Australia *Western Junction, Tasmania, a locality in Australia *Western world, countries that id ...
,
Onehunga Onehunga is a suburb of Auckland in New Zealand and the location of the Port of Onehunga, the city's small port on the Manukau Harbour. It is south of the Auckland CBD, city centre, close to the volcano, volcanic cone of Maungakiekie / One Tree ...
,
Eastern Eastern may refer to: Transportation *China Eastern Airlines, a current Chinese airline based in Shanghai *Eastern Air, former name of Zambia Skyways *Eastern Air Lines, a defunct American airline that operated from 1926 to 1991 *Eastern Air Li ...
and Southern). These lines serve the western, southern and eastern parts of Auckland from the Britomart Transport Centre in downtown Auckland, the terminal station for all lines, where connections are also available to ferry and bus services. Work began in late 2015 to provide more route flexibility and connect Britomart more directly to western suburbs on the Western Line via an underground rail tunnel known as the
City Rail Link The City Rail Link (CRL) is a rail project currently under construction in Auckland, New Zealand. The project consists of a 3.5 km long double-track rail tunnel underneath Auckland's city centre, between Britomart Transport Centre and M ...
project. A light rail network is also planned.


Travel modes

;Road and rail Private vehicles are the main form of transportation within Auckland, with around seven percent of journeys in the Auckland region undertaken by bus in 2006, and two percent undertaken by train and ferry. For trips to the city centre at peak times the use of public transport is much higher, with more than half of trips undertaken by bus, train or ferry. In 2010 Auckland ranked quite low in its use of public transport, having only 46 public transport trips per capita per year, while Wellington has almost twice this number at 91, and Sydney has 114 trips. This strong roading focus results in substantial
traffic congestion Traffic congestion is a condition in transport that is characterized by slower speeds, longer trip times, and increased vehicular queueing. Traffic congestion on urban road networks has increased substantially since the 1950s. When traffic de ...
during peak times. This car reliance means 56% of the city's energy usage goes towards transportation and emissions will increase by 20% in the next 10 years. Bus services in Auckland are mostly radial, with few cross-town routes. Late-night services (i.e. past midnight) are limited, even on weekends. A major overhaul of Auckland's bus services was implemented during 2016–18, significantly expanding the reach of "frequent" bus services: those that operate at least every 15 minutes during the day and early evening, every day of the week. Auckland is connected with other cities through bus services operated by
InterCity InterCity (commonly abbreviated ''IC'' on timetables and tickets) is the classification applied to certain long-distance passenger train services in Europe. Such trains (in contrast to regional, local, or commuter trains) generally call at m ...
. Rail services operate along four lines between the CBD and the west, south and south-east of Auckland, with longer-distance trains operating to Wellington only a few times each week. Following the opening of Britomart Transport Centre in 2003, major investment in Auckland's rail network occurred, involving station upgrades, rolling stock refurbishment and infrastructure improvements. The rail upgrade has included electrification of Auckland's rail network, with electric trains constructed by
Construcciones y Auxiliar de Ferrocarriles Construcciones y Auxiliar de Ferrocarriles (Grupo CAF, literally "Construction and Other Railway Services") is a Spanish publicly listed company which manufactures railway vehicles and equipment and buses through its Solaris Bus & Coach subsidia ...
commencing service in April 2014. A number of proposed projects to further extend Auckland's rail network were included in the 2012 Auckland Plan, including the
City Rail Link The City Rail Link (CRL) is a rail project currently under construction in Auckland, New Zealand. The project consists of a 3.5 km long double-track rail tunnel underneath Auckland's city centre, between Britomart Transport Centre and M ...
, the
Auckland Airport Line The Auckland Airport Line was a proposed heavy rail line in Auckland, New Zealand, that would have linked Auckland Airport with the Auckland central business district via central isthmus suburbs. As of 2022, the plan is to implement the connect ...
, the Avondale-Southdown Line and rail to the North Shore. ;Other modes Auckland's ports are the second largest of the country, behind the
Port of Tauranga The Port of Tauranga is situated in Tauranga, New Zealand. It is the largest port in the country both in terms of total cargo volume, and in terms of container throughput with container volumes exceeding 1.2 million TEUs (Twenty Foot Equival ...
, and a large part of both inbound and outbound New Zealand commerce travels through them, mostly via the facilities northeast of Auckland CBD. Freight usually arrives at or is distributed from the port via road, though the port facilities also have rail access. Auckland is a major cruise ship stopover point, with the ships usually tying up at
Princes Wharf Prince's Wharf, or Princes Wharf, may refer to: * Princes Wharf, Auckland, a wharf in Auckland Harbour, Auckland, New Zealand * Prince's Wharf, Bristol M Shed is a museum in Bristol, England, located on Prince's Wharf beside the Floating Harbour ...
. Auckland CBD is connected to coastal suburbs, to the North Shore and to outlying islands by ferry. ;Air Auckland has various small regional airports and Auckland Airport, the busiest of the country. Auckland Airport, New Zealand's largest, is in the southern suburb of Māngere on the shores of the Manukau Harbour. There are frequent services to Australia, and to other New Zealand destinations. There are also direct connections to many locations in the South Pacific, as well as the United States, China, Asia,
Vancouver Vancouver ( ) is a major city in western Canada, located in the Lower Mainland region of British Columbia. As the List of cities in British Columbia, most populous city in the province, the 2021 Canadian census recorded 662,248 people in the ...
,
London London is the capital and largest city of England and the United Kingdom, with a population of just under 9 million. It stands on the River Thames in south-east England at the head of a estuary down to the North Sea, and has been a majo ...
,
Santiago Santiago (, ; ), also known as Santiago de Chile, is the capital and largest city of Chile as well as one of the largest cities in the Americas. It is the center of Chile's most densely populated region, the Santiago Metropolitan Region, whose ...
and
Buenos Aires Buenos Aires ( or ; ), officially the Autonomous City of Buenos Aires ( es, link=no, Ciudad Autónoma de Buenos Aires), is the capital and primate city of Argentina. The city is located on the western shore of the Río de la Plata, on South ...
. In terms of international flights, Auckland is the second-best connected city in Oceania. ;Policies Research at
Griffith University Griffith University is a public research university in South East Queensland on the east coast of Australia. Formally founded in 1971, Griffith opened its doors in 1975, introducing Australia's first degrees in environmental science and Asian s ...
has indicated that from the 1950s to the 1980s, Auckland engaged in some of the most pro-automobile transport policies anywhere in the world.
Backtracking Auckland: Bureaucratic rationality and public preferences in transport planning
'' – Mees, Paul; Dodson, Jago; Urban Research Program Issues Paper 5,
Griffith University Griffith University is a public research university in South East Queensland on the east coast of Australia. Formally founded in 1971, Griffith opened its doors in 1975, introducing Australia's first degrees in environmental science and Asian s ...
, April 2006 With public transport declining heavily during the second half of the 20th century (a trend mirrored in most Western countries such as the US), and increased spending on roads and cars, New Zealand (and specifically Auckland) now has the second-highest vehicle ownership rate in the world, with around 578 vehicles per 1000 people.Sustainable Transport
North Shore City Council website Auckland has also been called a very pedestrian- and cyclist-unfriendly city, though some efforts are being made to change this,
Big steps to change City of Cars
'' – ''
The New Zealand Herald ''The New Zealand Herald'' is a daily newspaper published in Auckland, New Zealand, owned by New Zealand Media and Entertainment, and considered a newspaper of record for New Zealand. It has the largest newspaper circulation of all newspapers ...
'', Friday 24 October 2008 with Auckland being a major participant in the government's "Urban Cycleways" initiative, and with the "SkyPath" project for a walk and cycleway on the Auckland Harbour Bridge having received Council support, and planning consent.


Infrastructure and services


Electricity

Vector Vector most often refers to: *Euclidean vector, a quantity with a magnitude and a direction *Vector (epidemiology), an agent that carries and transmits an infectious pathogen into another living organism Vector may also refer to: Mathematic ...
owns and operates the majority of the distribution network in urban Auckland, with Counties Energy owning and operating the network south of central Papakura. The city is supplied from Transpower's national grid from thirteen substations across the city. There are no major electricity generation stations located within the city or north of Auckland, so almost all of the electricity for Auckland and Northland must be transmitted from power stations in the south, mainly from
Huntly Power Station The Huntly Power Station is the largest thermal power station in New Zealand and is located in the town of Huntly in the Waikato. It is operated by Genesis Energy Limited, a publicly listed company (currently 51% owned by the NZ Government). Th ...
and the
Waikato River The Waikato River is the longest river in New Zealand, running for through the North Island. It rises on the eastern slopes of Mount Ruapehu, joining the Tongariro River system and flowing through Lake Taupō, New Zealand's largest lake. It th ...
hydroelectric stations. The city had two natural gas-fired power stations (the 380 MW Otahuhu B and the 175 MW Southdown), but both shut down in 2015. There have been several notable power outages in Auckland. The five-week-long 1998 Auckland power crisis blacked out much of the CBD after a cascade failure occurred on the four main underground cables supplying the CBD. The 2006 Auckland Blackout interrupted supply to the CBD and many inner suburbs after an earth wire shackle at Transpower's Otahuhu substation broke and short-circuited the lines supplying the inner city. In 2009, much of the northern and western suburbs, as well as all of Northland, experienced a blackout when a forklift accidentally came into contact with the Ōtāhuhu to Henderson 220 kV line, the only major line supplying the region. Transpower spent $1.25 billion in the early 2010s reinforcing the supply into and across Auckland, including a 400 kV-capable transmission line from the Waikato River to Brownhill substation (operating initially at 220 kV), and 220 kV underground cables between Brownhill and Pakuranga, and between Pakuranga and Albany via the CBD. These reduced the Auckland Region's reliance on Otahuhu substation and northern and western Auckland's reliance on the Ōtāhuhu to Henderson line.


Natural gas

Auckland was one of the original nine towns and cities in New Zealand to be supplied with natural gas when the Kapuni gas field entered production in 1970 and a 340 km long high pressure pipeline from the field in Taranaki to the city was completed. Auckland was connected to the Maui gas field in 1982 following the completion of a high pressure pipeline from the Maui gas pipeline near
Huntly Huntly ( gd, Srath Bhalgaidh or ''Hunndaidh'') is a town in Aberdeenshire, Scotland, formerly known as Milton of Strathbogie or simply Strathbogie. It had a population of 4,460 in 2004 and is the site of Huntly Castle. Its neighbouring settlement ...
, via the city, to Whangarei in Northland. The high pressure transmission pipelines supplying the city are now owned and operated by
First Gas First Gas Limited is a natural gas transmission and distribution company in New Zealand. First Gas's network has 2,204 km of high pressure pipelines and 4,800 km of gas distribution pipelines. Through Flex Gas, First Gas owns and operates the Ah ...
, with
Vector Vector most often refers to: *Euclidean vector, a quantity with a magnitude and a direction *Vector (epidemiology), an agent that carries and transmits an infectious pathogen into another living organism Vector may also refer to: Mathematic ...
owning and operating the medium and low pressure distribution pipelines in the city.


Tourism

Prior to the
COVID-19 pandemic The COVID-19 pandemic, also known as the coronavirus pandemic, is an ongoing global pandemic of coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) caused by severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2). The novel virus was first identi ...
of 2020 onwards, Auckland-related tourism boosted the New Zealand economy. Many tourists visiting New Zealand would arrive via Auckland Airport, and
cruise ship Cruise ships are large passenger ships used mainly for vacationing. Unlike ocean liners, which are used for transport, cruise ships typically embark on round-trip voyages to various ports-of-call, where passengers may go on tours known as "s ...
s also called. Tourist attractions and landmarks in Auckland include: ;Attractions and buildings * Aotea Square – the main square within the CBD, adjacent to Queen Street. It hosts rallies and arts festivals. * Auckland Civic Theatre – an internationally significant atmospheric theatre built in 1929. It was renovated in 2000 to its original condition. * Auckland Harbour Bridge – connecting central Auckland and the North Shore, an iconic symbol of Auckland. * Auckland Town Hall – with its concert hall considered to have some of the finest acoustics in the world , this 1911 building serves both council and entertainment functions. *
Auckland War Memorial Museum The Auckland War Memorial Museum Tāmaki Paenga Hira (or simply the Auckland Museum) is one of New Zealand's most important museums and war memorials. Its collections concentrate on New Zealand history (and especially the history of the Auckl ...
– a large multi-exhibition museum in the
Auckland Domain The Auckland Domain, also known as Pukekawa / Auckland Domain, is a large park in Auckland, New Zealand. It is the oldest park in the city, and at is one of the largest. Located in the central suburb of Grafton, the park land is the remains o ...
, known for its impressive
neo-classicist Neoclassicism (also spelled Neo-classicism) was a Western cultural movement in the decorative and visual arts, literature, theatre, music, and architecture that drew inspiration from the art and culture of classical antiquity. Neoclassicism w ...
style, built in 1929. * Aotea Centre – Auckland Civic Centre building completed in 1989. * Britomart Transport Centre – the main CBD public transport centre, in a historic
Edwardian The Edwardian era or Edwardian period of British history spanned the reign of King Edward VII, 1901 to 1910 and is sometimes extended to the start of the First World War. The death of Queen Victoria in January 1901 marked the end of the Victori ...
building. *
Eden Park Eden Park is New Zealand's largest sports stadium, with a capacity of 50,000. Located in central Auckland, New Zealand's largest city, it is three kilometres southwest of the Auckland CBD, CBD, on the boundary between the suburbs of Mount E ...
– the city's primary stadium and a host of international rugby union and cricket matches. It hosted the 1987 and 2011 Rugby World Cup finals. * Karangahape Road – known as "K' Road", a street in upper central Auckland with bars, clubs, smaller shops, and a former
red-light district A red-light district or pleasure district is a part of an urban area where a concentration of prostitution and sex-oriented businesses, such as sex shops, strip clubs, and adult theaters, are found. In most cases, red-light districts are particu ...
. *
Kelly Tarlton's Sea Life Aquarium Kelly Tarlton's Sea Life Aquarium (formerly Kelly Tarlton's Underwater World) is a public aquarium opened in 1985 in Auckland, New Zealand. Located at 23 Tamaki Drive, it was the brainchild of New Zealand marine archaeologist and diver Kelly Tar ...
– an aquarium and Antarctic environment in the eastern suburb of Mission Bay, built in a set of former sewage-storage tanks. It showcases penguins, turtles, sharks, tropical fish, stingrays and other marine creatures. *
MOTAT The Museum of Transport and Technology (MOTAT) is a science and technology museum located in Western Springs, Auckland, New Zealand. It is located close to the Western Springs Stadium, Auckland Zoo and the Western Springs Park. The museum ha ...
– the Museum of Transport and Technology, at Western Springs. * Mt Smart Stadium – a stadium used mainly for
rugby league Rugby league football, commonly known as just rugby league and sometimes football, footy, rugby or league, is a full-contact sport played by two teams of thirteen players on a rectangular field measuring 68 metres (75 yards) wide and 112 ...
and soccer matches, and also for concerts. *
New Zealand Maritime Museum The New Zealand Maritime Museum Hui Te Ananui A Tangaroa is a maritime museum in Auckland, New Zealand. It is located on Hobson Wharf, adjacent to the Viaduct Harbour in central Auckland. It houses exhibitions spanning New Zealand's maritime hist ...
– features exhibitions and collections relating to New Zealand maritime history at Hobson Wharf, adjacent to Viaduct Harbour. * Ponsonby – a suburb and main street immediately west of central Auckland, known for arts, cafes, culture and historic villas. * Queen Street – the main commercial thoroughfare of the CBD, running from Karangahape Road downhill to the harbour. * Rainbow's End – amusement park with over 20 rides and attractions, based in Manukau. * St Patrick's Cathedral – the Catholic Cathedral of Auckland. A 19th-century Gothic building which was renovated from 2003 to 2007 for refurbishment and structural support. * Sky Tower – the tallest free-standing structure in the Southern Hemisphere, it is tall and offers excellent panoramic views. * Spark Arena – events centre in downtown Auckland completed in 2007. Holding 12,000 people, it is used for sports and concert events. * Viaduct Harbour – formerly an industrial harbour, the basin was re-developed as a marina and residential area in the 1990s. It served as a base for the America's Cup regattas in 2000 and 2003. *
Western Springs Stadium Western Springs Stadium is a stadium in Auckland, New Zealand. Built within a natural amphitheatre, it is primarily used for rugby union matches during the winter and for speedway during the summer. It is also occasionally used for large conce ...
– a natural amphitheatre used mainly for speedway races, rock and pop concerts. ;Natural landmarks *
Auckland Domain The Auckland Domain, also known as Pukekawa / Auckland Domain, is a large park in Auckland, New Zealand. It is the oldest park in the city, and at is one of the largest. Located in the central suburb of Grafton, the park land is the remains o ...
– built atop the tuff ring of the Pukekawa volcano in 1843, the domain is the oldest and one of the largest parks in the city. Located at the intersection of the suburbs of Parnell, Newmarket, and Grafton, it is close to the CBD and offers a clear view of the harbour and of Rangitoto Island.
Auckland War Memorial Museum The Auckland War Memorial Museum Tāmaki Paenga Hira (or simply the Auckland Museum) is one of New Zealand's most important museums and war memorials. Its collections concentrate on New Zealand history (and especially the history of the Auckl ...
is located at the highest point in the park. * Maungawhau / Mount Eden – a
volcanic cone Volcanic cones are among the simplest volcanic landforms. They are built by ejecta from a volcanic vent, piling up around the vent in the shape of a cone with a central crater. Volcanic cones are of different types, depending upon the nature and ...
with a grassy crater. The highest natural point on the Auckland isthmus, it offers 360-degree views of the city and is thus a popular tourist outlook. *
Maungakiekie / One Tree Hill Maungakiekie / One Tree Hill is a volcano, volcanic peak and Tūpuna Maunga o Tāmaki Makaurau, Tūpuna Maunga (ancestral mountain) in Auckland, New Zealand. It is an important place culturally and archeologically for both Māori people, Māor ...
– a volcanic cone that dominates the skyline of the southern inner suburbs. It no longer has a tree on the summit (after a politically motivated attack on the erstwhile tree) but is crowned by an
obelisk An obelisk (; from grc, ὀβελίσκος ; diminutive of ''obelos'', " spit, nail, pointed pillar") is a tall, four-sided, narrow tapering monument which ends in a pyramid-like shape or pyramidion at the top. Originally constructed by Anc ...
. * Rangitoto Island – an island which guards the entrance to Waitematā Harbour and forms a prominent feature on the eastern horizon. The island was formed by a volcanic eruption approximately 600 years ago, making it both the youngest and the largest volcano in the
Auckland Volcanic Field The Auckland volcanic field is an area of monogenetic volcanoes covered by much of the metropolitan area of Auckland, New Zealand's largest city, located in the North Island. The approximately 53 volcanoes in the field have produced a diverse a ...
. The island reaches a height of 260 m, and offers panoramic views across Auckland. * Takarunga / Mount Victoria and Maungauika (North Head) – nearby volcanic cones in Devonport, both of which offer views of the Waitematā Harbour and CBD. Both hills were fortified with artillery and bunkers in the late 19th century and were maintained as coastal defences until the 1950s. *
Tiritiri Matangi Island Tiritiri Matangi Island is located in the Hauraki Gulf of New Zealand, east of the Whangaparaoa Peninsula in the North Island and north east of Auckland. The island is an open nature reserve managed by the Supporters of Tiritiri Matangi Incorpo ...
- an island in the
Hauraki Gulf The Hauraki Gulf / Tīkapa Moana is a coastal feature of the North Island of New Zealand. It has an area of 4000 km2,Department of Conservation An environmental ministry is a national or subnational government agency politically responsible for the environment and/or natural resources. Various other names are commonly used to identify such agencies, such as Ministry of the Environment ...
. It is specifically noted for its bird life, including
takahē The South Island takahē (''Porphyrio hochstetteri'') is a flightless swamphen indigenous to New Zealand and the largest living member of the rail family. It is often known by the abbreviated name takahē, which it shares with the recently ...
, North Island
kōkako Kōkako (''Callaeas'') are two species of endangered forest birds which are endemic to New Zealand, the North Island kōkako (''Callaeas wilsoni'') and the presumably extinct South Island kōkako (''Callaeas cinereus''). They are both slate-gre ...
and
kiwi Kiwi most commonly refers to: * Kiwi (bird), a flightless bird native to New Zealand * Kiwi (nickname), a nickname for New Zealanders * Kiwifruit, an edible berry * Kiwi dollar or New Zealand dollar, a unit of currency Kiwi or KIWI may also ref ...
. * Waiheke Island – the second-largest island in the
Hauraki Gulf The Hauraki Gulf / Tīkapa Moana is a coastal feature of the North Island of New Zealand. It has an area of 4000 km2,Waitakere Ranges, a range of hills approximately west of the CBD. The hills run from north to south along the west coast of the
North Island The North Island, also officially named Te Ika-a-Māui, is one of the two main islands of New Zealand, separated from the larger but much less populous South Island by the Cook Strait. The island's area is , making it the world's 14th-larges ...
for approximately , and rise to a peak of . A significant portion of the hills lie within a regional park, which includes numerous bush-walking tracks. Coastal cliffs rise to , intermittently broken up by beaches; popular surf beaches in the area include Piha, Muriwai, Te Henga (Bethells Beach) and Karekare.


Cultural references

* Fans of Auckland sometimes like to quote
Rudyard Kipling Joseph Rudyard Kipling ( ; 30 December 1865 – 18 January 1936)''The Times'', (London) 18 January 1936, p. 12. was an English novelist, short-story writer, poet, and journalist. He was born in British India, which inspired much of his work. ...
's invocation of the city's remoteness: "Last, loneliest, loveliest, exquisite, apart", from his poem "The Song of the Cities" (1893). * Different works of
Robert Heinlein Robert Anson Heinlein (; July 7, 1907 – May 8, 1988) was an American science fiction author, aeronautical engineer, and naval officer. Sometimes called the "dean of science fiction writers", he was among the first to emphasize scientific accu ...
refer to a fictional human colony on
Venus Venus is the second planet from the Sun. It is sometimes called Earth's "sister" or "twin" planet as it is almost as large and has a similar composition. As an interior planet to Earth, Venus (like Mercury) appears in Earth's sky never fa ...
as "New Auckland".


Sister cities

Auckland Council maintains relationships with the following cities.


Sister cities

*
Los Angeles Los Angeles ( ; es, Los Ángeles, link=no , ), often referred to by its initials L.A., is the largest city in the state of California and the second most populous city in the United States after New York City, as well as one of the world' ...
, United States (1971) *
Utsunomiya is the prefectural capital city of Tochigi Prefecture in the northern Kantō region of Japan. , the city had an estimated population of 519,223, and a population density of . The total area of the city is . Utsunomiya is famous for its ''gyoza'' ...
, Japan (1982) *
Fukuoka is the sixth-largest city in Japan, the second-largest port city after Yokohama, and the capital city of Fukuoka Prefecture, Japan. The city is built along the shores of Hakata Bay, and has been a center of international commerce since ancie ...
, Japan (1986) *
Brisbane Brisbane ( ) is the capital and most populous city of the states and territories of Australia, Australian state of Queensland, and the list of cities in Australia by population, third-most populous city in Australia and Oceania, with a populati ...
, Australia (1988) *
Guangzhou Guangzhou (, ; ; or ; ), also known as Canton () and alternatively romanized as Kwongchow or Kwangchow, is the capital and largest city of Guangdong province in southern China. Located on the Pearl River about north-northwest of Hong Kon ...
, China (1989) * Kakogawa, Japan (1992) *
Busan Busan (), officially known as is South Korea's most populous city after Seoul, with a population of over 3.4 million inhabitants. Formerly romanized as Pusan, it is the economic, cultural and educational center of southeastern South Korea, w ...
, South Korea (1996) *
Taichung Taichung (, Wade–Giles: ''Tʻai²-chung¹'', pinyin: ''Táizhōng''), officially Taichung City, is a special municipality located in central Taiwan. Taichung has approximately 2.8 million residents and is the second most populous city of Taiw ...
, Taiwan (1996) *
Ningbo Ningbo (; Ningbonese: ''gnin² poq⁷'' , Standard Mandarin pronunciation: ), formerly romanized as Ningpo, is a major sub-provincial city in northeast Zhejiang province, People's Republic of China. It comprises 6 urban districts, 2 sate ...
, China (1998) *
Qingdao Qingdao (, also spelled Tsingtao; , Mandarin: ) is a major city in eastern Shandong Province. The city's name in Chinese characters literally means " azure island". Located on China's Yellow Sea coast, it is a major nodal city of the One Belt ...
, China (2008)


Friendship and Cooperation cities

* Tomioka, Japan (1983) *
Shinagawa is a special ward in Tokyo, Japan. The Ward refers to itself as Shinagawa City in English. The Ward is home to ten embassies. , the Ward had an estimated population of 380,293 and a population density of 16,510 persons per km2. The total are ...
, Japan (1993) *
Galway Galway ( ; ga, Gaillimh, ) is a City status in Ireland, city in the West Region, Ireland, West of Ireland, in the Provinces of Ireland, province of Connacht, which is the county town of County Galway. It lies on the River Corrib between Lo ...
, Ireland (2002) *
Nadi Nadi (pronounced ) is the third-largest conurbation in Fiji. It is located on the western side of the main island of Viti Levu, and had a population of 42,284 at the most recent census, in 2007. A 2012 estimate showed that the population had ...
, Fiji (2006) *
Hamburg (male), (female) en, Hamburger(s), Hamburgian(s) , timezone1 = Central (CET) , utc_offset1 = +1 , timezone1_DST = Central (CEST) , utc_offset1_DST = +2 , postal ...
, Germany (2007) *
Pohang Pohang () is a city in the province of North Gyeongsang, South Korea, and a main seaport in the Daegu-Gyeongbuk region. The built-up area of Pohang is located on the alluvium of the mouth of the Hyeongsan River. The city is divided into two wa ...
, South Korea (2008)


See also

*
Jafa Jafa is a slang term (sometimes pejorative) for a resident of Auckland, New Zealand. It is an acronym, standing for ''Just Another Fucking Aucklander''. This prejudice against Aucklanders started to appear around the 1900s, when Premier Richard J ...
, a slang term for Aucklander *
People from Auckland A person ( : people) is a being that has certain capacities or attributes such as reason, morality, consciousness or self-consciousness, and being a part of a culturally established form of social relations such as kinship, ownership of property, ...


Notes


References


External links


Auckland
– Visitor-oriented official website
Auckland travel guide
– NewZealand.com (New Zealand's official visitor guide and information)
Auckland
in Te Ara the Encyclopedia of New Zealand

(from the ARC map website) {{Authority control Former national capitals of New Zealand Former provincial capitals of New Zealand Populated coastal places in New Zealand Populated places established in 1840 1840 establishments in New Zealand Port cities in New Zealand Former colonial capitals