New Zealand's largest city is consistently ranked as one of the world's most livable cities. With a sub-tropical maritime climate, close proximity to the ocean, acres of beautiful parkland, a vibrant downtown university, a lively theatre and arts scene and a tolerant, multi-cultural population, it sounds like paradise.
But then there's the small issue of the dozens of volcanic cones that punctuate it's topography. In the photo to the right, at least half a dozen are easy to spot.
No worries, residents tell us. There have only been 19 eruptions in the past ten thousand years (or something to that effect).
It's actually easy to forget the volcanic activity bubbling below the surface of the city. The city connects to the Tasman Sea on the west and to the South Pacific on the east through two different harbours each scattered with beautiful islands that are an easy get-away from the central business district.
The parks offer verdant stretches of cricket fields, lined with magnificent 100-year old trees. The plane trees in Victoria Park pictured here, offer cool dappled shade from the hot afternoon sun.
New Zealand's distance from other land masses means that the island nation has developed unique flora and fauna. The lack of land mammals (until the Maori arrived with pigs, chickens and rats 800 years ago) meant that birds evolved into niches occupied by mammals in other parts of the world.
In the absence of deer or bison, flightless Moa - taller and heavier than ostriches - grazed the grasslands. Kiwi birds still snuffle through the ground cover looking for bugs just like rodents would in other parts of the world. Flightless parrots fit in where squirrels might live elsewhere.
The country's fascinating geological, biological and human history is revealed in the War Memorial Museum atop an extinct volcanic cone in the Auckland Domain.
When we visited there was also a charming temporary exhibit on the 75 history of Air New Zealand - including a virtual reality simulator of the cabins of the not too distant future (hint - see-through walls and floors).
But the city itself is embellished with it's very present living history. For example, picturesque Victorian cottages abound in inner city neighbourhoods like Ponsonby and Parnell.
Auckland is a comfortable landing spot when arriving from overseas and is often dismissed as 'just a big city' you pass through on your way to bigger adventures, but it offers a useful orientation to New Zealand's colourful history and current psyche.
- 30 -
