A visitors guide to New Zealand – Part 1

Venture into Auckland:

Most overseas visitors fly into Auckland, which is New Zealand’s largest city with a population of 1.3 million people. Immediately one feels that it is very cosmopolitan having a great mixture of peoples of diverse origin, particularly Asian and Polynesian, who have helped to create innumerable exotic restaurants, bistros and cafes.

The city sprawls around a narrow isthmus with Manakau Harbour on the Tasman Sea and Waitemata Harbour on the Pacific Ocean making it a haven for yachts. It became world renown for hosting the international yacht race, the America’s Cup, which New Zealand won two sessions in a row until finally losing it to the Swiss yacht “Alinghi”.

I was struck with the hilly nature of the city. The streets twist and turn, go up and down, so that it is very easy to get lost. A straight and level street seems impossible to achieve because the city is built on a young, undulating volcanic landscape studded with volcanoes and lava flows.

There are about 50 ancient eruptive sites. Many suburbs cherish their little volcano, some 100 to 250 meters high, often complete with crater, such as at Mt Eden. All this past volcanic activity happened only a few thousand years ago and, now that the region is covered over with houses, gardens and streets, its fiery origin is largely forgotten.

To help lost tourists Aucklanders have built the “Sky Tower” downtown close to the waterfront and ferry terminal. This is a striking symbol of advanced architecture being 328 meters tall and the highest man-made structure in the Southern Hemisphere. It serves as a communications tower with a revolving restaurant near the top. Also it is a challenge for abseilers who like to show off their skills in the CBD.

Sky Tower can be seen from a great distance. You can say to your friend, I’ll meet you at Sky Tower without ambiguity. It is next door to the Auckland Casino which is a terminal for the airport buses. From here you can venture forth to explore the city without fear of getting lost since Sky Tower, day or night, will always be visible on the horizon.

Aucklanders are justly proud of their other icon “Rangitoto Island” but I have yet to meet one who has actually been there. It is a symmetrical volcanic cone rising some 260 meters high from the sea and complete with crater, now well forested. Early in the morning and at midday you can catch a boat at the ferry terminal or get picked up at Devonport and visit the island