January – April 2013
We drove through Auckland several times, but we only stayed there twice, once in a hotel, and once in our boat. We’ve seen parts of it, but it’s a big place and we feel like we’ve barely scratched the surface.
Our impression of Auckland is that it has a lot in common with a port city like San Francisco: Neighborhoods of varying degrees of wealth and/or trendiness sprawl down hillsides toward the downtown area behind the waterfront. This area, formerly a run-down commercial harbor, had been revamped for the 2000 America’s Cup and became the famous Viaduct Harbour. Now, it’s a thriving area full of promenades, restaurants, bars, wharves, boats, marine stores, a ferry terminal, and lots of people enjoying themselves during the summer months.
If you travel a little ways north, there’s the massive Westhaven Marina near the base of the Harbor Bridge. As you travel southeast, you come to the beautiful seaside suburbs and beaches and a waterfront promenade perfect for walking, jogging, or skating. Of course, the city has large and beautiful parks.
If you were to ask a Kiwi what makes Auckland unique and special among the world’s big cities, they’d probably think of the Sky Tower, Auckland’s version of the Seattle Space Needle. Or they might say the Viaduct Harbour area. Both the Sky Tower and the Viaduct are neat, but they’re tourist attractions, and many cities have sky towers or revamped waterfronts.
This doesn’t mean Auckland doesn’t have some unique and special features, but that’s the subject of the next blog post.
In the meantime, here’s a gallery of the Sky Tower, downtown, Viaduct Harbour, marinas, neighborhoods, oceanfront and a few of the places we ate. –Cyndi (Click on any image below to enlarge.)
