AUCKLAND, NEW ZEALAND February 15, 2008The Auckland Metropolitan Area, or Greater Auckland, in the North Island of New Zealand, is the largest urban area in New Zealand. Auckland’s population is approximately 1.3 million making it by far the largest city in New Zealand, with one third of the country’s entire population.
Auckland straddles the volcanoes of the Auckland Volcanic Field. The 50 volcanic vents in the field take the form of cones, lakes, lagoons, islands and depressions, and several have produced extensive lava flows. The volcanoes are all individually extinct although the field itself is merely dormant.
Auckland is popularly known as the “City of Sails” because the harbor is often dotted with hundreds of yachts and has more per capita than any other city in the world with one boat for every four families.
We took a tour of the city and got extensive views of the numerous yacht harbors. We also visited the wonderful Auckland museum. Here one whole floor was dedicated the Maori, Pakeha, the peoples of Oceania. It examines the diversity of Pacific Island communities and the astonishing beauty of the objects they produced.
The visual highlight of the tour was the Sky Tower. At over 600 feet it is the tallest man made structure in the southern hemisphere. At one point they had a glass floor in the observation deck floor. Not many were willing to walk on it except this one who took a picture of his shoes. We then took some pictures at the tower and on the way back to the ship.
Finally we stopped at the New Zealand National Maritime Museum right at the dock where the ship it docked. They have an extensive exhibit of the history of physical boats one of which Judy chose to captain.
