In 1840, the city of Auckland was named by then Governor William Hobson in honor of Lord Auckland, from whom Hobson took command of the H.M.S. frigate. Rattlesnake had named after him. Lord Auckland was the first Lord of the British Admiralty at the time, and General Governor in India from 1835 to 1842. In 1848, a statue was erected in Calcutta in honor of him, which was handed over in 1969 as a gift from the government of the state of West Bengal to the town of Auckland, where it was placed in front of the building of the Civic Center (Municipality).

geographical location

Auckland is located on the 380 km long and up to 80 km wide northern tip of the North Island of New Zealand. The town is bordered to the north by the Northland region and to the south by the Waikato region. In the west, the Tasmanian Sea is the natural border and in the east of the Pacific Ocean, with the islands of Great Barrier Island and the islands between it and Auckland and the sea area of the Hauraki Gulf being part of the city. The new urban area was created in 2010 and covers a land area of 4938 km².

The highest elevation in the urban area is the 688 m high coal, located in the Hunui Ranges in the extreme southeast of the city. Another mountain range is located to the west of the city center. Waitakere ranks rise to 474 meters. The land area of Auckland is narrowed to a few kilometers in the middle of the north-south extension, as the Manukau Harbor and the Waitemata Harbor from the east and the large estuary of the Tamaki River rise into the urban area from the west.

geology

Geological map with the Auckland area and its extinct volcanoes from the first systematic geological mapping of the country by Ferdinand von Hochstetter

Much of New Zealand is directly influenced by the Pacific Fire Ring, including the area in and around Auckland. The city was built on a basalt volcanic field, the Auckland Volcanic Field. It consists of 53 volcanoes that are no longer active. They shaped the landscape in that they either stood out as islands from the sea or formed hills, lakes or lagoons. The first eruptions started about 60,000 to 140,000 years ago, while the last two major eruptions around 550 and 600 years ago constituted the largest remaining volcano, the Rangitoto off the city's east coast (see map). Rangi means "heaven" and Toto "blood", suggesting that the island got its name from Māori, who experienced the last eruption. Today, because of the highly acidic soil, only a few birds and insects live on the island, which is mainly covered by plants that have adapted to the black, rocky soil.

Many of the other former volcanoes have been removed or severely modified in their surface structure to create space for flat construction or park facilities. You can still see numerous hills and terraces in the landscape that point to the volcanoes. In recent years, several district administrations have been working with the New Zealand government to include the unique landscape and cultural diversity of volcanoes on the country's preliminary list of UNESCO World Heritage candidates.

climate

Auckland is under the influence of a subtropical-oceanic climate. Temperature variations throughout the year are small. The climate is characterized by long warm, humid summers and cooler, rather humid winters. The average January temperature varies between 24 °C and 30 °C, although February is often warmer, whereas the average July peak temperatures range from 14 °C to 20 °C. Auckland has an average of 2100 hours of sunshine per year. Although it rains more during the summer months than in Wellington or Christchurch, for example, most of the rainfall falls fall during the winter months. The average annual rainfall is over 1243 mm.

The wind is mostly from the west to the southwest, but also north-east wind is not uncommon.

Although the city's climate depends heavily on geographical points such as hills, sea currents, or air currents, the temperature rarely exceeds 35°C. 27. July 1939, Auckland was able to record its only officially confirmed snowfall, with snow for various parts of the country, especially on the southern island, for example for Christchurch, not rare and regularly reaching sea level. In total, Auckland is considered to be New Zealand's mildest metropolitan city.

settlement by the Māori

Terrace-like slopes at Mount Eden

Tāmaki Makaurau, now known as Auckland, was first populated by the Māori, the indigenous population of New Zealand, around 1350. On the remains of the volcanoes, they built fortified villages, called Pā. At the height of the pre-colonial settlement, the area of today's great city of Auckland had about 20,000 inhabitants; With this number, New Zealand law later granted city rights. The terraces of this early settlement can be seen on the larger hills, such as Mount Eden or the One Tree Hill , to some extent still today.

The main reasons for this area's population were its good food supply and its strategic advantages compared to other settlements. The fertile, highly productive soils made agriculture flourish and access to two large natural ports facilitated fishing. In addition, the fortified settlements on the volcanic hills as well as the protected location on the country's edge made the defense easy.

The Ngāti Whātua and Waikato-Tainui were originally the two dominant Māori tribes (Iwi). When Europeans arrived in New Zealand, they used arms as bargaining, which disrupted the balance of power among tribes and inevitably degenerated into armed conflict. These same clashes among themselves and diseases introduced by Europeans, particularly smallpox and tuberculosis, have reduced the number of maori in the area significantly.

In the following period, Māori "sold" more and more land, for example the city center today to William Hobson, the country's first governor (then still Lieutenant Governor), and agreed on 20 June 2005. March in the Bay of Islands to sign the contract of Waitangi. The Ngāti Whātua tribe hoped to gain better access to the new port facilities to bring its manufactured goods from the Waikato and Hauraki Plains to the markets in Australia's then-prison colony, and in particular to Sydney.

The birth of today's city

After the signing of the Waitangi contract, which tied New Zealand to the UK (then New Zealand was officially a "colony" of New South Wales), William Hobson had to find a suitable location for the country's new capital. At that time, the majority of the European population was concentrated in the Bay of the Islands in today's Far North District (Northland region ). However, the geographical location of the Bay of Islands made it difficult to reach it and very remote from the rest of the country.

German map of 1888

At first glance, Port Nicholson, today's Wellington Harbor, seemed a good choice for the capital. Port Nicholson was very conveniently located on the southern tip of the North Island, so close to the South Island and also with a large population growth. But this city was then controlled by the New Zealand Company and the Wakefield Brothers, pioneers of New Zealand colonization, and had a rather bad reputation for illegally seizing Māori land.

On the recommendation of several personalities, including the missionary Henry Williams and the colony's chief landlord Felton Mathew, and due to land abandonment by the Ngāti Whātua, Hobson chose the southern bank of the Waitemata Harbor as a location for the new capital, while he (also known as Okiato 7 kilometers south of today's Russell in the Bay of Islands. After William Cornwallis Symonds, a close associate of Hobson and Magistrate had acquired more land from the Ngāti Whātua in the area, 18th. In 1840 at 13:00, the town of Auckland was held at the current upper Queen Street at the beginning of the 18th century. He named the city after George Eden, 1st century AD. Earl of Auckland, who was one of his patrons and friends. 26. In 1842, the New Zealand Gazette (New Zealand Gazette) officially announced the city name "Auckland".

From then on, a steady stream of immigrants reached the new capital. In 1842, the first immigrant ships to enter the port of Auckland were mostly people from other parts of New Zealand and ships from the "parent colony" of New South Wales, when the first ships arrived directly from Britain. While the eastern areas of the city were reserved for members of the government, the western urban area was dominated by artisans and artists. This social gap has been maintained to this day.

In 1862, Port Nicholson became the capital of the country and maintained this status - now known as Wellington - until today. A central position on Cookstraße became extremely important at that time to stop separatist movements on the South Island. These were found because gold was found in the Otago region on the South Island and meat from the South Island could safely be brought to the UK as cold meat because of the invention of the refrigerator.

ascent to the city

Aerial view of Auckland

The city of Auckland served as a starting point for the then governor George Gray , in 1860, to push the Māori further south during the New Zealand wars. His tactic included infrastructure development in the areas south of Auckland. This included Great South Road (large parts of New Zealand State Highways 1 have the same route), which made it possible to reach the Waikato region more quickly with armed forces. This road also attracted other settlers to the territory formerly known as South Auckland or Manukau and thus significantly extended the sphere of influence of the Pākehā.

In the mid-nineteenth century, New Zealand's population concentrated mainly on the southern island. Nevertheless, Auckland gradually became the country's economic center. While the Great South Road economically opened up the south of Auckland, the extraction of rubber from kauri trees was an important economic sector of the Waitakere rank in the West.

In 1900 Auckland was the largest city in the country. This marked the beginning of an era of construction. For example, an electrified tram was opened in 1919. This consisted of nine lines and had to compete with private city buses in the coming years, until the state decided in 1926 a kind of "monopoly" of public transport. This year, 63,000,000 passengers were traveled by tram. About ten years after the introduction of the tram, the company was gradually discontinued.

The Fox Tower in the City

The Great Depression of 1929 also had a major impact on the city of Auckland. With Michael Joseph Savage, a Labor Party supporter became New Zealand's prime minister for the first time. It had built countless houses for financially vulnerable populations at the cost of government in Auckland in the following decades until the 1950's. The houses were usually built on very large plots - mostly a quarter-acre (about 1000 square meters). The size of the plots around the small houses has hardly changed since then, resulting in immense space consumption and a great inefficiency of public transport.

After World War II, a construction boom resumed, especially in terms of infrastructure improvements. The Auckland Harbor Bridge, for example, was opened in 1959 and expanded ten years later because of chronic overload. This bridge links the city center of Auckland with the northern suburb of North Shore, overlooking the Waitemata Harbor. Furthermore, in 1966, south of Mangere, a part of the former Manukau City, the new airport was officially inaugurated to relieve the airfields in Ardmore and Whenuapai that had been used after the flight services had been stopped.

In 1998, the Central Business District was without electricity for five weeks. 20. The first (40-year-old) underground power cable failed due to unusually hot weather conditions until the 20th of January. February was followed by the remaining three. Until five weeks later, many companies, estimated to cost about NZ$60,000 a week in the event, temporarily relocated their offices to suburbs of the city, other New Zealand cities, or even Australia. A total of 60,000 to 74,000 workers and 6,000 inhabitants were affected. (see also Auckland Electricity Crisis of 1998)

Formation of the Auckland Council

The idea of bringing together all the cities and districts of the Auckland region was to provide Auckland with a government and administration that can quickly and efficiently solve all the metropolis's infrastructure problems. With a regional council, four councils of independent cities, and three district councils, all of which had a further 30 local community boards as their breakdowns, the problems of the fast-growing Auckland region were no longer thought to be adequately resolved.

Already in 2002, the Local Government Act 2002 gave the various Councils in the region the competence to cooperate across structures. In 2004, the Local Government Auckland Amendment Act 2004 established the Auckland Regional Transport Authority and the Auckland Regional Holdings with the aim of planning and operating across the region in the areas of transport and rainwater management. In the same year, the one-region approach was developed.

After a three-year discussion, a Royal Commission was finally established in 2007 and commissioned to examine the merger of the cities and districts of the Auckland region. In March 2009, the Commission issued a very detailed report recommending that the Auckland region be considered a city politically and administratively and that the eight independent Councils be dissolved. The same month, the government decided to broadly follow the Commission's recommendation. In May 2009, the Auckland Transition Agency (ATA) was founded to implement the plan, which for more than 16 months prepared the merger politically and organizationally according to the guidelines of the New Zealand government.

With the public election on 9th On 11 October 2010, the citizens of the Auckland region ultimately had the task and the opportunity to give political legitimacy to the Auckland Council and its bodies. The Auckland Council, with the consent of the citizens, finally took place on on 22 November 2010. The Auckland Transition Agency (ATA) was thus repealed.

population

Although the Auckland metropolitan area has been the largest in the country since 1900, it had only a little over 150,000 inhabitants at the time. Only in 1996 did the agglomeration exceed the millions. 30. June 2003 saw 1,199,300 people living in the country's largest metropolitan area. Three years later, in 2006, the population was 1,320,700, according to the census, and 1,415,550 inhabitants in 2013. Since 2010, the Auckland metropolitan area has also been an administrative city, making it New Zealand's only millionaire city. The population is forecast to exceed two million by 2050.

Of the population in 2013, 142,767 were Māori (10.1%). This means that 23.9% of the country's Māori population lived in Auckland.

In the 2013 census of ethnic groups, 59.3% said they were Europeans, 10.7% said they had Māori roots, 14.6% were Pacific islands and 23.1% were Asian (multiple indications were possible). 39.1% of the population said they were born overseas. 4.4% of the population spoke Samoan as the second most common language after English. The third most common language was Māori and was spoken by 3.7% of the population, with the Māori population accounting for 17.9%. The average income of the population in 2013 was NZ$ 29,600, compared to NZ$ 28,500 on the national average.

Source and languages

View of the port area of Auckland at night

Auckland is home to many different cultures. Most of the inhabitants have European ancestors, mainly British ones. But there are also large communities of Māori, Asians and people from the Pacific Islands. No other major city on Earth has as many Polynesians as Auckland. A large proportion of the population has Asian origins. The majority of immigrants come from East Asia and South Asia. The reason for this cultural diversity, despite the city's relative remoteness, is the country's highly liberal immigration policy. A large proportion of immigrants to New Zealand move to Auckland, the country's most multicultural city by far.

The 2013 census for Auckland showed the following ethnic classification:

• 59.3% of the population of Europe counted among the population,
• 23.1% of the population was in Asian population,
• 14.6% of the population counted among the Pacific population,
• 10,7 % of the inhabitants were in the Māori population and
• 3.1% of the population was in other populations.

Note: The New Zealand census makes it possible to count to several ethnic groups.

religion

In Auckland there are comparatively many people who are not religious. Nearly 40% of the total population does not belong to any religion. According to the 2001 census, less than 10% of religious residents regularly attend service. Overall, a larger percentage of immigrant Polynesians regularly visit services as New Zealand countries themselves. However, this remarkable feature is declining from the second generation.

In Auckland there are many religious communities, such as Christianity, Buddhism, Hinduism and Islam. Jewish communities have existed since the beginning.

The Anglican Holy Trinity Cathedral in Parnell, Auckland

Auckland is largely characterized by many different Christian denominations. The largest Christian communities are the Anglican Church, the Presbyterian Church and the Roman Catholic Church. The city has been a Catholic bishop's seat since 1848 with the Cathedral of St. Patrick and St. Joseph (1885/1908). The National Roman Catholic Priestess Seminar of New Zealand Holy Cross College, founded in Mosgiel in 1900, has been based in Auckland since 1997. There are also a small number of Lutherans in the city. The biggest increases are the Pentecost movement and the charismatic church. The also charismatic and fundamentalist Destiny Church, founded in 1998 and headquartered in Auckland, has some 300 followers and now operates 20 church buildings throughout New Zealand and even Australia.

administration

The Auckland Council consists of 20 Councilors (councilors) and a Mayor. They govern the city. In addition, the city is divided into 21 so-called local boards, in which elected representatives of the various districts discuss and decide matters with local relevance and are sometimes consulted on overarching decision-making processes. The 21 local boards include:

town twinning

The Auckland Council has concluded 19 town twinning partnerships of different types with cities or other administrative units of other countries:

Golden Bay cement for Fletcher Building Ltd based in Auckland.

Auckland has always been not only the infrastructure but also the economic center of New Zealand. Two particularly important factors in the economy of Auckland make the metropolitan area the most important city in the country: One is foreign trade and the other is finance. Tourism has become increasingly important, especially recently. The International Port of Auckland is responsible for 68% of all imports and 33% of the country's total exports (as of: 2004). The unemployment rate, on average, was 3.3% below the national average of 3.6% (2004). Many national credit institutions are headquartered in Auckland and many foreign banks have a branch in the city. Since the country's ultra-liberal economic policies, Australian banks have often held majority shares in former New Zealand credit institutions. Examples include the Australia and New Zealand Banking Group (ANZ), the Bank of New Zealand or the Auckland Savings Bank (ASB).

Altogether, almost 70,000 people work in the city's Central Business District (CBD) alone, representing about 13% of the city's total jobs.

traffic

road

In Auckland, as in New Zealand, private road transport is a higher priority than public transport. This is evident, for example, in the fact that the conurbation has an extremely large road network. On the other hand, the highway network was planned at the height of the road construction era and has still not been fully realized according to the plans of the time (2006). Roughly speaking, the basic network consists of a very important north-south link, which currently runs from Orewa (former Rodney District) in the north to just before Papakura in the south and is a part of New Zealand State Highway 1. The second important route - an East-West tangent - runs from Waitakere in the east to the intersection with the North-South route in the center of the city. A long-planned eastward journey, the Eastern Transport Corridor failed in 2004 at the high cost of $4,000,000,000. The intersection of the two motorways was expanded, resulting in the Central Motorway Junction being the largest intersection of the country's motorways. In addition, the Northern Motorway Extension will extend the northern motorway over Orewa.

The Auckland Harbor Bridge, which connects the city center to North Shore, is a major feature of the city’s road network. The carriageways attached to both sides in 1969 due to the very heavy traffic of the bridge have been dismantled over time and have been repaired for the time being, but will have to be completely renewed in the future. In the meantime, there are plans to relieve the building, which suffers from chronic overload, either by another bridge or by an underground connection.

local passenger

The entrance to the Britomart Transport Center

Auckland suffers from extremely heavy traffic, which is responsible for kilometers of traffic jams every day in different parts of the city. The various approaches to solving the problem decided, among other things, on one of the last mayoral elections. Since 2003, when the Britomart Transport Center was opened as a link between rail, bus and ferry services, public transport in Auckland has been under a single name: MAXX. Gradually, all buses, ferries, trains, stations, etc. will be labeled with the logo of the network to make the whole system more user-friendly and to better connect the three means of transport. However, the entire system is still relatively unfriendly to customers, as no interconnection tariff exists. Each of the 12 transport companies will have to obtain a separate ticket, which means that the use of buses, trains and ferries is in most cases very unattractive, especially as the maintenance of a car is very cost-effective.

In order to better regulate the business practices of local public transport operators, the Auckland Region established the ARTA (Auckland Regional Transport Authority) (ARTA), a cross-district organization.

bus

A new bus display panel (here Victoria Park)

Buses are by far the largest part of public transport in Auckland. There are five different bus companies operating in the urban area with different, non-combinable, complex tariff systems.

A very large project is the Northern Busway Project. The Northern Motorway Extension is being planned and under construction and will be fitted with a bus lane that is permanently reserved for public transport. Since the parallel motorway is chronically clogged in commercial traffic, this line is used as one of very few of a significant number of passengers.

In recent years, a number of special practical guidelines have been introduced. One of them is the so-called NiteRider, a late-night line that leaves the main stops at the weekend until 3:00am. There is also the Link Bus, which connects different stations in the city center and is the last of the City Circuit; this line is operated every ten minutes and passes clockwise through the city center. Since it is free, it is very popular. Some buses are powered by hybrid technology and are therefore a bit more environmentally friendly.

rail

long distance

Auckland Central Station is located in the Britomart Transport Center. From here, a passenger train starts three times a week and travels to Wellington as a Northern Explorer via Hamilton and Palmerston North to Wellington. In 1976, long-distance passenger traffic on the line north of Auckland was stopped towards Whangarei. Since then, only freight trains have operated on this route.

local traffic

A suburb of ADL class in the Britomart Center

In earlier years, Auckland had plans for a city train. At this stage, however, it is highly unlikely that it will be implemented soon. For years almost no money has been invested in the railway infrastructure, i.e. the tracks, the stations and the train units. A turnaround marked the opening of the Britomart Transport Center in 2003, a station located in the center of the city, offering easy access to buses and port ferries. The current rail network, which is more like a suburban railway than an S-Bahn, consists of five lines, all of which start at the Britomart Center: The western line (Western Line) leads to Waitakere, the southern line (Southern Line) ends in Pukekohe, while the eastern line (Eastern Line) returns southwest after the stop at Glen Innes and joins the southern line. Two lines run on runways that turn off the Southern Line: the route to Onehunga (Onehunga Line) and to the center of the former city of Manukau City.

Since mid-2005, some 40 existing breakpoints have been modernized in a uniform design. However, these improvements are far from being sufficient to make the system in Auckland, which is comparable to the worldwide comparison of several cities of similar size, more attractive in all respects, although passenger numbers have been around 10-40% higher each month since the start of the investments (in February 2006: 423,000 journeys, in March 2006: 545,000 journeys). The ARTA consortium shall regularly publish the latest developments and plans for the near future and for a medium-term period. A number of documents give high priority to investment: Firstly, the Authority has put a great deal of emphasis on future electrification of the entire network, but without responding specifically to previous studies. In addition, a new line parallel to the SH20 will open up the south-west of the city. The extension plan also includes connections to the airport both from the north and to a western continuation of the Manukau line still to be built. A first step towards the construction of an airport-city-line was the re-opening of the OnehungaLine, which was abandoned in 1973, in 2009, decided in March 2007. The North Shore railway connection is conceivable in the distant future due to the unfavorable geographical location beyond Waitemata Harbor. In order to allow a five-minute supply at peak times and to make the Britomart Center, which is planned as a transit station, more efficient, but which is currently a terminal, another project for ARTA is of paramount importance and is already in the planning phase, albeit in the medium term: From the Britomart Center, an underground line of up to five stations is expected to open the Center (Central Business District), shorten waitakers' travel times and make the Britomart Center a transit station. This metro line, for which electrification is absolutely essential, has all the efficiency of ARTA plans. With all these enlargements, the maximum annual transport capacity would rise to 67.9 million people. In the Greater Auckland area there is also a movement for improved and greener public transport, the Campaign for Better Transport (CBT). This organization advocates different improvements in rail transport. It is also due to the reopening of the Onehunga Line.

The year 2007 marked an important year in the railway history of Auckland. 17. On 23 May 2007, it was publicly announced that the New Zealand government is financing electrification of the suburban railway of Auckland. The costs, which amount to about $1 billion, are used for the conversion at the stations, for the power lines and for new train units. By 2013 all railway systems were electrified and since 2015 all suburban railways have been electrically operated.

air

The International Terminal at Auckland Airport

The city of Auckland has the largest airport in the country with Auckland Airport. It is located about 21 kilometers south of the city center in Mangere, the former city of Manukau. In 2004, more than 11 million passengers have already been checked in - 6 million of them with international destinations. The number of passengers in 2050 is forecast to exceed 50 million. The airport has been expanding gradually for years, especially since 2004. For example, the terminals will be expanded or new parking facilities will be created. The total area of the arrival hall, which existed since 1977, was approximately 12,000 m². It has now almost eight-fold, reaching about 100,000 m². In total, over 30 airlines fly to the airport, which is the main hub of Air New Zealand, Freedom Air, and Pacific Blue.

A feasibility study will also be carried out for the establishment of a second international airport near Whenuapai, in the northwest of Waitakere, as the Royal New Zealand Air Force intends to transfer its remaining main base near Palmerston North to Ohakea. There are also two other airports in or around Auckland: Ardmore Airport - base of Mountain Air - and Dairy Flat, both are served by smaller aircraft. The city's first airport in Mechanics Bay is now only used as a heliport.

ferry

New ferry terminal 1 at Queens Warf

For local transport in Auckland ferries are much more important than in Wellington, for example. There are only two lines, while Auckland has many different connections. The ferry connections between Auckland City and North Shore are most in demand, as the overloaded Auckland Harbor Bridge can be bypassed. On a daily basis, however, a large number of ferries operate to the islands, which are part of the city, off the east coast. Connections exist e.g. B. to Half Moon Bay and to the islands of Rangitoto Island and Waiheke Island.

sea navigation

Auckland is the most important port city in New Zealand. In Auckland there are extensive port facilities for container handling, general cargo and an important cruise ship terminal. The majority of the ports are operated by the Port of Auckland Authority, which belongs to the Auckland Council.

Infrastructure for major events

The Eden Park Stadium in Auckland

Auckland has numerous venues for various sports and concerts. In the city, the Eden Park is the largest sports stadium in the country, where the Rugby World Championship finals took place in 2011. 60,000 people have been able to find a place there after the conversion. The optional oval pitch allows you to hold cricket games. After lengthy discussions in 2006, possible new stadium buildings were rejected either in Waitakere or in the harbor area of the city center and the rebuilding of the Eden Park stadium was decided. The North Harbor Stadium is the home of the New Zealand Knights, New Zealand's representative of Australia's highest football league, the eight-team A-League. There is also the 25,000 spectators' Ericsson Stadium .

Apart from the two indoor ice hockey halls in the city, there are no ice sports venues. These two halls are not to be measured against international standards. Despite its virtually snow-free and frost-free location in Auckland, the Vector Arena, a multifunctional hall with 12,000 seats, was opened in 2007, where sports such as ice hockey can take place for example basketball or motocross races.

education

The Clock Tower of the University of Auckland

In Auckland, three New Zealand universities are headquartered: The University of Auckland, the Auckland University of Technology (AUT) and the Unitec Institute of Technology.

The oldest university in Auckland is the University of Auckland founded in 1883. In 2011, more than 40,000 students were enrolled at the University of Auckland. It is a research-based university (for example: research-oriented university; comparable to a university in Germany) and offers a variety of courses at the faculties of engineering, law, medicine, art, economics, social sciences, education and natural sciences. There is also a theological faculty. The main campus of the University of Auckland is located a little southeast of the city center of Auckland City. It also has five others: the largest is located in the Auckland City district of Tamaki, the medical school and other health science departments are located opposite the Auckland Hospital near the Citycampus in the Grafton district, and another campus is located in the North Shore district of Takapuna. Since the merger with the Auckland College of Education 2004, the campus in Epsom and the Whangarei branch belong to the university.

Founded in 2000, the Auckland University of Technology (AUT) is New Zealand's youngest university, although it dates back to the Auckland Technical School founded in 1895. In 2014, 28,314 students were enrolled. AUT is comparable to a technical college in Germany. The AUT are also located southeast of the city center. She also has a campus in the Akoranga district in North Shore.

The Unitec Institute of Technology was founded in 1976. In 2012, more than 16,000 students were enrolled. Their status is comparable to that of a technical college or university of applied sciences in Germany. It is located in the district of Mt Albert and has an external office in the district of Henderson of Waitakere.

Other New Zealand universities also have campus or field offices in the Auckland conurbation. For example, the University of Otago, which is mainly based in Dunedin, has a building on Queen Street in downtown Aucklands, and Massey University has a campus in Albany (North Shore) alongside Palmerston North and Wellington.

In the Otara district there is the Manukau Institute of Technology (M.I.T. Since 1996 a partnership has been established with the University of Auckland. According to our own homepage, over 25,000 students study at M.I.T.

The Auckland metropolitan area attracts people for a variety of reasons. The mild climate of the region, the good work opportunities, numerous educational institutions and the many leisure opportunities are some of them. In line with the 2012 City Ranking of Mercer Consulting, Auckland has the third highest quality of life in all major cities of the world.

music

Auckland is home to the Auckland Philharmonia Orchestra, New Zealand's second-largest professional orchestra. The orchestra plays works of symphonic classical music, opera and popular music. The New Zealand Electro-Pop band The Naked and Famous also comes from Auckland.

festivals

Founded in Otara in 1976, the Polyfest is one of the largest Polynesian festivals in the world.

leisure

Auckland - View from the Westhaven Marina to Downtown

Auckland is often referred to as the City of Sails, because there are countless marinas on the coast. Westhaven Marina near Auckland Harbor Bridge is not only the largest marina in the city, but also the whole southern hemisphere, with about 1400 boat spaces. Moreover, no other city in the world has as many sailing boats per inhabitant as Auckland. The Viaduct Basin, a neighborhood reconstructed in the late 1990s, already hosted the America’s Cup twice - in 2000 and 2003. This former downhill harbor district has been transformed into a lifestyle center with restaurants, central apartments and public spaces. This area is now one of the city's nightlife centers, with its cafes and bars.

Auckland has many beaches. The most famous are located on the east coast and hot Mission Bay, Devonport, Takapuna, Long Bay and Maraetai. In contrast to the white sandy coastline in the east, the beaches on the west coast are black sand overlooking Lake Tasmansee. The most popular sections are Piha and Muriwai Beach. Many of these beaches are protected by lifeguards from the Surf Life Saving New Zealand organization, which emerges from the Australian Surf Life Saving.

housing situation

Most of the inhabitants of Auckland live in their own homes. Most of these are wooden, single-story, and are located on a "quarter acre", about 1,000 square meters of land. The city is mostly suburbs with mostly flat construction. Auckland is the fastest growing city in the country. Due to the rapid and rapid settlement of the agglomeration, the administration is trying to stop this development and to realize the "increase in population density" it is placing on higher townhouses, terraced houses or apartments.

Auckland is home to the Royal New Zealand Yacht Squadron (RNZYS), an old and leading New Zealand yacht club. He became famous for his successful participation in the America’s Cup.

Since 1972, the 8.4 kilometer long one-day Round the Bays run in Auckland every year, mainly along the coast, has been organized in March. There are several stadiums in the city for Rugby Union and Cricket, venues for motor sports, tennis, badminton, swimming, football, rugby league and many more. Auckland even has two ice hockey stadiums.

The city's football club is called Auckland City FC and is in the country's top soccer league, the New Zealand Football Championship, founded in 2004, with six titles record champions and eight titles record champions of the OFC Champions League. Rugby, especially Rugby Union, plays a much larger role. The Blues, the Blue, participated in the Super Rugby Championship with fourteen other teams from New Zealand, Australia and South Africa and have been champions three times, most recently in 2003. The home matches are played in the Eden Park, with a capacity of 50,000 spectators, the largest stadium in the country. In addition, the Auckland Rugby Football Union’s provincial team, which participates in the ITM Cup, also plays home matches in the Eden Park. With 16 championship titles and a record defense of the Ranfurly Shields, this is the most successful provincial team in New Zealand. The North Harbor Rugby Union (NHRU) is also located in the northern part of the Auckland metropolitan area. His Rugby Union team also plays in the national ITM Cup and plays their home games at the North Harbor Stadium in Albany.

The Western Springs Stadium in Auckland has been hosting the Speedway Single World Championship of the Speedway World Championship Grand Prix in New Zealand since 2012.

The Crater of Mount Eden

Aucklands town center is located south of the harbor in Waitemata Harbor along Queen Street. Worth seeing and a good starting point for boat trips to the Hauraki Gulf, for example on Rangitoto Island or Waiheke Island or Little or Great Barrier Island, is the port with the Ferry Building built in 1912. Just west of this is the Viaduct Basin, which hosted the American’s Cup races in 2000 and 2003. The New Zealand Maritime Museum (Hui Te Ananui A Tangaroa) is located directly on Viaduct Basin, which deals with New Zealand's shipping history, starting with the great Pacific migration several thousand years ago to this day. The Aotea Center and Town Hall are an important cultural center in the city center. The Auckland City Gallery and the New Gallery are also nearby.

Another interesting museum is the Auckland War Memorial Museum, located in the Auckland Domain Park, which houses collections on the history and culture of the Māori and the nature of New Zealand. You can get a glimpse of the country's remaining fauna in the city's zoo. You can enjoy free views of large parts of the agglomeration on the volcanic hills of Mount Eden and the One Tree Hill. The best view of the area can be obtained from the observation platform of the Sky Tower. Opened in 1997, this tower is the highest building in the southern hemisphere at 328 meters.

To the east of the city center is Kelly Tarlton's Antarctic Encounter & Underwater World, a huge aquarium with an Antarctic exhibition. Near the city, there are many beautiful beaches that invite you to relax, swim and surf.

The Museum of Transport and Technology (short: MOTAT). It includes a tram, various vintage cars, planes, as well as various computers and digital games.

Many Aucklands buildings have been protected as cultural monuments since the adoption of the Historic Places Act 1993. In Category I, the New Zealand Historic Places Trust ranked among the following construction works:

• Auckland Ferry Terminal
• Auckland Grammar School
• Auckland Railway Station
• Auckland Savings Bank Building
• Auckland Town Hall
• Auckland War Memorial Museum
• New Zealand Maritime Museum Hui Te Anaui A Tangaroa
• Colonial Ammunition Company
• Dilworth Building
• Grafton Bridge
• Mount Eden Prisons
• Old Synagogue
• One Tree Hill
• St Matthew’s
• St Patrick’s Cathedral
• St Paul’s Church
• Victoria Park Market

zoom and display image information

 

Panoramic view from Mount Eden over Auckland

zoom and display image information

 

Auckland 360° from SkyTower

Famous figures include mountaineer Edmund Hillary, driver Bruce McLaren, politician and 37. Prime Minister of New Zealand John Key and actor Lawrence Makoare.

Auckland is a millionaire city, by far the largest city in New Zealand, and thus occupies a correspondingly dominant position in New Zealand society. This status as a "secret capital" leads to a certain rivalry with the real capital, Wellington. In addition, the lifestyle differs significantly from that of the rest of the country, particularly in the predominantly rural areas. This difference means that the city and the rest of the country consider themselves mutually unrepresentative of the country, which is reflected in statements such as "New Zealand begins beyond the Bombay Hills" (New Zealand begins after the Bombay Hills; a chain of hills in southern Aucklands) or the term "Hillbilly" for non-Aucklander or "Jafa" for Aucklander. The last name is an acronym for Just Another Fucking Aucklander (German: only one more damned outlander) and is partially ironic, partly positively reinterpreted (for example, as Just Another Friendly Aucklander - just another friendly outlander) by now also used by Aucklanders himself.