Auckland

Auckland’s a city of volcanoes, with the ridges of lava flows forming its main thoroughfares and its several cones providing islands of green during the sea of suburbs. As well as getting by far the largest, it’s the most multicultural of NZ’s cities. A sizable Asian community rubs shoulders of the biggest Polynesian population of any city from the world.

The traditional Kiwi aspiration in your freestanding house on a quarter-acre section has resulted in a vast, sprawling city. The CBD was extended ago abandoned to commerce, and inner-city apartment living has only just began to catch on. Although geography has been kind, city planning has been a smaller amount so. Unbridled and ill-conceived development has left the centre on the city with some architectural embarrassments. For getting under Auckland’s skin you’re finest to head for your rows of Victorian and Edwardian villas in its hip inner-city suburbs.