Auckland

The Auckland isthmus, Tāmaki Makaurau, was one of the most densely settled parts of the country before European arrival. Its volcanic cones were terraced into fortified pā, with kūmara gardens on the fertile ash soils and portages between the two harbours that let canoes cross from the Pacific to the Tasman in a day. Musket warfare in the 1820s emptied much of the isthmus, and by 1840 the area was only lightly occupied when Ngāti Whātua leaders offered land to the Lieutenant-Governor, William Hobson, who founded a town there in September of that year and named it after the Earl of Auckland.

Auckland was the colonial capital until 1865, when Parliament moved to Wellington as a more central site. The loss of government did not slow it: the harbour, the gum and timber trades, the Waikato farmland opening to the south and later refrigerated shipping made it the country's busiest port and largest city. Suburbs spread along tram and rail lines, and the hills of Ponsonby and Grey Lynn filled with wooden villas.

The twentieth century reshaped it twice. After the Second World War, Māori moved to the city from the countryside in great numbers, and migrants arrived from Samoa, Tonga, the Cook Islands and Niue — a movement soured by the dawn raids on Pacific families in the 1970s, for which the government apologised in 2021. The Harbour Bridge of 1959 and the motorways opened the North Shore and the far suburbs to low-density growth. Immigration policy changes from the late 1980s brought new arrivals from Asia, and in 2010 the city and its surrounding districts were merged into a single Auckland Council.

Auckland is the largest Polynesian city in the world and the most diverse place in New Zealand: roughly four in ten residents were born overseas, and Samoan, Tongan, Cook Islands Māori, Mandarin, Cantonese, Hindi and te reo Māori are all widely spoken. That mix shows in the churches of South Auckland, the temples and mosques of the suburbs, the Pasifika and Lantern festivals, and in a food scene that owes more to Asia and the Pacific than to Britain.

Māori culture is publicly present. Kapa haka is taught in schools and contested fiercely, iwi names and dual place names appear on signs and official documents, and Matariki, the midwinter rising of the Pleiades, has been a public holiday since 2022. The city's maunga, its volcanic cones, are administered by a collective of iwi with the council.

Boats are the shared passion. Auckland calls itself the City of Sails, and harbour races, dinghy classes and fishing trips fill the weekends; the city hosted the America's Cup in 2000, 2003 and 2021. Rugby dominates winter, with the Blues and Auckland provincial sides at Eden Park, alongside the Warriors in rugby league at Mount Smart Stadium, netball, and cricket in summer. The arts run from the Auckland Art Gallery and the Aotea Centre to a long tradition of independent theatre and hip hop, and the music of Pacific Auckland — from Herbs to Che Fu and beyond — is part of the national songbook.

About 1.8 million people live in the Auckland region, roughly a third of New Zealand's population, in a low-density sprawl that stretches from Wellsford in the north to the Bombay Hills in the south. The economy is the country's largest, built on finance, professional services, the port, construction, education, the airport and tourism; head offices cluster in the city centre and Newmarket, and industry in the south and west.

Where people live divides the city sharply. The eastern bays, the inner harbourside suburbs and parts of the North Shore are wealthy; the south and far west are poorer and younger, with large Māori and Pacific populations. Housing is the central issue of daily life: Auckland has some of the least affordable house prices in the developed world relative to incomes, and the response has been apartment blocks in the centre and townhouses replacing single houses in the suburbs. Commutes are long, and a car is a necessity in much of the city despite steady investment in rail, busways and cycleways.

The rhythm is outdoor and suburban. Mornings begin with coffee — flat whites taken seriously — and summer weekends go to beaches, the Gulf islands, boats, junior sport on Saturday mornings and church on Sunday for many Pacific families. Long holidays empty the city towards the Coromandel and Northland coasts in January.

Auckland eats across the Pacific and Asia. Samoan, Tongan and Cook Islands kitchens supply taro, green bananas and cooked-to-order plates at the South Auckland markets, along with ika mata and oka, raw fish dressed in coconut cream and lime, sapasui, the Samoan version of chop suey, and pork and chicken from a hāngī or an umu earth oven. Chinese, Korean, Vietnamese, Malaysian and Japanese restaurants line Dominion Road, Upper Queen Street, Northcote and Botany, and Sandringham Road is the place for dosa, biryani and Indian sweets. Night markets in suburban car parks sell everything from takoyaki to hurricane potatoes.

Seafood is the local pride: Bluff oysters, green-lipped mussels, snapper, kingfish and crayfish, and fish and chips eaten on the sand — hoki, gurnard or snapper in batter, with a scoop of chips. Whitebait fritters appear in spring, and kina, the roe of sea urchins, is a delicacy for those raised on it.

Coffee is close to a civic institution, roasted locally and served as a flat white, long black or trim latte in cafés that take brunch seriously: eggs, corn fritters and sourdough are standard. Sweet things run to hokey pokey ice cream with its toffee pieces, lamingtons, Afghan biscuits and pavlova topped with kiwifruit or berries. Wine comes from Kumeū and Matakana to the north and Waiheke across the water, and the craft beer scene is concentrated in taprooms around the city fringe.