Auckland & Northland

Tāmaki Makaurau, the Auckland isthmus, was densely settled before Europeans arrived: its volcanic cones were terraced into fortified pā with kūmara gardens on the fertile slopes. Northland was the heartland of Ngāpuhi and other northern iwi, whose traditions trace their ancestors' canoes to landfalls along this coast. Contact came early here. Samuel Marsden preached the first Christian sermon in the country at Oihi Bay in 1814, missions followed at Kerikeri and Paihia, and Kororāreka, today's Russell, grew into a rowdy whaling port. Muskets obtained through trade gave Ngāpuhi war leaders such as Hongi Hika a decisive edge in the Musket Wars.

Northern chiefs signed He Whakaputanga, a declaration of independence, in 1835, and on 6 February 1840 the first signatures were put to the Treaty of Waitangi in a marquee in the grounds of the British Resident's house. Within five years Hōne Heke had cut down the British flagstaff at Kororāreka, starting the Northern War of 1845–46, which ended after the fighting at Ruapekapeka pā.

Governor Hobson founded Auckland in 1840 as the colony's capital, a role it lost to Wellington in 1865. It overtook every rival to become the commercial centre, and after the Second World War drew Māori migrants from the countryside and Pacific Islanders from Samoa, Tonga, the Cook Islands and Niue. The 1977–78 occupation of Bastion Point by Ngāti Whātua Ōrākei protesters became a landmark of the Māori protest movement. Northland, meanwhile, lived by kauri timber and gum, then dairying and forestry.

Auckland is the country's most diverse city: more than a third of its people were born overseas, and its Pacific, Chinese, Indian and Korean communities shape its suburbs, churches and food. South Auckland, around Manukau, Ōtara and Māngere, is the heart of Pacific life, and the annual Pasifika Festival is one of the city's largest events. Aucklanders are teased by the rest of the country as brash and traffic-obsessed, and they tease back; the rivalry with Wellington is old and friendly.

Northland is a different world: rural, slower, with one of the highest proportions of Māori residents of any region. Ngāpuhi is the country's most numerous iwi, and marae, te reo Māori and tribal life are part of everyday life. Waitangi Day at the Treaty Grounds combines ceremony, waka (war canoe) paddling, political speeches and, in some years, protest. Dalmatian settlers who came to dig kauri gum left Croatian surnames across the north, and Hundertwasser, the Austrian artist who settled near Kawakawa, left the town its famous public toilets.

Sailing is the regional passion. Auckland calls itself the City of Sails, the harbour fills with boats every weekend, and the city hosted the America's Cup in 2000, 2003 and 2021.

About 1.7 million people live in the Auckland region, roughly a third of the country, spread across a low-density sprawl between the Waitematā and Manukau harbours. The city dominates the national economy through finance, ports, tourism, universities and the airport, and it carries the national problems in concentrated form: the country's highest house prices, long commutes on congested motorways, and deep contrasts between wealthy eastern and harbourside suburbs and poorer ones in the south and west.

Northland has about 200,000 people. Whangārei, with around 55,000, is its only city; Kerikeri, Kaitaia, Dargaville, Kaikohe and the Bay of Islands towns are small. The economy rests on dairying, forestry, kūmara and avocado growing, Marsden Point's port and tourism. Incomes are among the lowest in the country, and many young people leave for Auckland or Australia.

Weekends revolve around the water: beaches, fishing, boats and the bach. Summer holidays empty Auckland towards the Coromandel, a separate region to the south-east, and the Northland coast.

The north's food is shaped by warmth and sea. Kūmara, the Polynesian sweet potato, grows in quantity around Dargaville on the Kaipara, and Kerikeri is citrus and avocado country. The harbours produce Pacific oysters, snapper is the prized catch, and small coastal towns such as Mangōnui remain fishing and farming centres. Hāngī, food steamed in an earth oven, appears at marae events and festivals.

Auckland eats the Pacific and Asia. South Auckland's markets and takeaways serve ika mata, raw fish in coconut cream and lime from the Cook Islands, its Samoan cousin oka, and sapasui (Samoan-style chop suey); Dominion Road is lined with Asian restaurants, and Sandringham with Indian ones.

Wine grows close to the city. Kumeu, north-west of Auckland, is known for chardonnay, and Waiheke for Bordeaux-style reds and syrah, drunk at vineyard restaurants overlooking the Hauraki Gulf.

Auckland's sights sit on and around its volcanoes. Maungawhau / Mount Eden has a deep grassy crater and a view across both harbours; Maungakiekie / One Tree Hill carries an obelisk over the city; Rangitoto, the island volcano that rose from the sea only about 600 years ago, can be climbed through lava fields in a morning. The Auckland War Memorial Museum holds major Māori and Pacific collections, and the waterfront runs from the ferry terminal to the Viaduct and Wynyard Quarter. Waiheke Island has vineyards, sculpture walks and beaches; the black-sand west coast beaches of Piha and Muriwai, with its gannet colony, lie beyond the Waitākere Ranges.

North of the city, Whangārei has the Whangārei Falls and the Hundertwasser Art Centre, and the Tutukaka coast is the launch point for diving at the Poor Knights Islands. The Bay of Islands is the centre of Northland tourism: the Waitangi Treaty Grounds, historic Russell across the water from Paihia, boat trips to the Hole in the Rock at Cape Brett, and Kerikeri's Stone Store and Kemp House, among the oldest buildings in the country.

On the west coast, Waipoua Forest shelters Tāne Mahuta and Te Matua Ngahere, giant kauri reached by short boardwalk tracks. In the far north, Ninety Mile Beach runs for about 88 kilometres up the Aupōuri Peninsula past the giant Te Paki sand dunes, and the road ends at Cape Reinga / Te Rerenga Wairua, where a lighthouse overlooks the swirling line where the Tasman Sea meets the Pacific.