Auckland
Created | Updated Jan 28, 2002
Auckland is the largest city in New Zealand, with about 1 million inhabitants. Most of these are squeezed into a small isthmus between two harbours, the Waitemata, and the Manakau, making Auckland one of very few cities in the world to possess two harbours.
On the eastern side of Auckland beyond the Waitemata harbour is the Hauraki Gulf, where the 1999-2000 America's Cup was held, and yes Peter, it is still New Zealand's Cup. The Hauraki Gulf is a large area of water sheltered by the Coromandel Peninsula and Great Barrier Island (no relation to the reef.) This allows many Aucklanders ready access to the sea which has in a large part led to Auckland's nickname, The City of Sails, due to the large number of yachts that can be found on the harbour and gulf every weekend.
Auckland traffic is abominable due to a roading system designed in the 1950s still being in use today. This means that at peak hour all main arterial routes turn into parking lots and the bridge over the harbour, which needed extensions after only 20 years, to become the worst bottleneck in traffic you have ever seen. A recent idea from the council to remedy the situation was to form Bus/Cycle lanes to make public transport more appealing. All it has acheived is to make already paranoid cycling commuters even more certain that someone really is out to get them.
On the eastern side of Auckland beyond the Waitemata harbour is the Hauraki Gulf, where the 1999-2000 America's Cup was held, and yes Peter, it is still New Zealand's Cup. The Hauraki Gulf is a large area of water sheltered by the Coromandel Peninsula and Great Barrier Island (no relation to the reef.) This allows many Aucklanders ready access to the sea which has in a large part led to Auckland's nickname, The City of Sails, due to the large number of yachts that can be found on the harbour and gulf every weekend.
Auckland traffic is abominable due to a roading system designed in the 1950s still being in use today. This means that at peak hour all main arterial routes turn into parking lots and the bridge over the harbour, which needed extensions after only 20 years, to become the worst bottleneck in traffic you have ever seen. A recent idea from the council to remedy the situation was to form Bus/Cycle lanes to make public transport more appealing. All it has acheived is to make already paranoid cycling commuters even more certain that someone really is out to get them.
