I flew over 7,000 miles of Pacific Ocean to reach Auckland, New Zealand’s largest city. Arriving after two calendar days of travel, I was grateful to trade my economy-plus seat for a comfortable bed in a small, cell-like room in my modest hotel. Set on a narrow isthmus tightly gripped by the ocean, I would no longer be over the Pacific but I would never be far from it anywhere in Auckland or in New Zealand. It is a place shaped by the ocean, on the edge of the Pacific and forming the Tasman Sea with Australia. Ferries, freighters, and sailing boats criss-cross the waters and trace paths of the Maori who traveled from across the ocean.
Auckland, the City of Sails, has long been a magnet for arrivals. Long before the first European settlers (mostly English) populated New Zealand in the late 18th century, the Māori people knew it as Tāmaki Makaurau. This translates roughly to “Tāmaki of a hundred lovers,” also rendered as “Tāmaki desired by many.” Assuming there were no volcanic eruptions at the time, it’s easy to see why the Auckland area was so desirable to its first human visitors: two harbours (Waitematā to the east and Manukau on the west), a mild climate, and a completely natural environment. When the Māori arrived in the 13th–14th centuries, they were the first humans (and only the second mammal species) to set foot on Aotearoa, the Land of the Long White Cloud, as they called it Their voyages across the Pacific marked one of the last great chapters of Polynesian blue-water exploration as they reached the final large land-mass to see human occupation.
New Zealand is recognised worldwide as a beautiful country and most travellers pass through Auckland quickly to get to its natural sites. That is a missed opportunity. Auckland is blessed with lovely parks, thanks in large part to the Auckland Volcanic Field. Young at about 250,000 years, this volcanic field includes more than 50 volcanoes. The most recent eruption created Rangitoto Island in the Hauraki Gulf roughly 600 years ago. Western Park offers a glimpse into the topography that compelled the Māori to stay when they first arrived from thousands of miles away on ocean-going canoes. Verdant, dense with trees and plants such as the emblematic silver fern, the park is basically two merging gullies. It is all steep paths and wide vistas. Although Europeans introduced many new tree species here and throughout New Zealand, the park allows you to imagine how the landscape might have appeared to the first set of human eyes to behold it, a coastal forest rising directly out of a drowned, volcanic shoreline shaped by the encircling Pacific.
Walking around Auckland I found myself thinking of Singapore. The combination of skyscrapers and colonial buildings surrounded by ocean provided two pleasant parallels. Auckland is also a very Asian city, with a higher proportion of Asian residents than anywhere else in New Zealand. About 40% of Auckland’s population is foreign-born, many from Asian countries. On my hotel’s street alone I passed a Korean BBQ joint, a sushi restaurant, a Taiwanese bubble tea store, and a Vietnamese pho stand. Auckland is also home to the largest Polynesian population of any city on earth. Auckland might be considered the capital city of the Pacific, demographically, geographically, and cultural, a testament to the allure, the beneficence, and the challenges of the Pacific.
New Zealand gets its English name from Abel Tasman, whose Dutch sponsors renamed the islands after the province of Zeeland in 1642. Auckland, now a city of about 1.7 million, home to roughly one third of all New Zealanders, was named by William Hobson. He chose the spot for New Zealand’s capital following a grant by Ngāti Whātua Ōrākei, the local iwi (tribe). Hobson honored his patron, George Eden, the Earl of Auckland, in the naming.
Names and language are powerful here. It won’t take a visitor long to see that New Zealand is officially bilingual. You will see Māori and English on signs. There are indigenous news and entertainment stations too. Te Tōangaroa, an area which includes Spark Arena and The Strand Railway Station, is in the process of having its original Māori name officially restored, along with the waterfront’s Māori name. Te Tōangaroa means “the dragging of waka (canoe) a long way to the shoreline.” The name encapsulates centuries of Māori maritime exploration in a single and perhaps challenging phrase, summoning an image of canoes hauled up from the Pacific after an epic voyages.
The name changes are part of a larger project called Te Kete Rukuruku, which aims to collect and share the stories unique to Māori in Auckland. It’s a collaborative effort between iwi (tribes) and the Auckland Council, working to resurface the unique iwi identity of the region. This program is repeated throughout New Zealand. It might be better to say that the country is making a concerted effort to become bi-cultural. Long neglected, Māori culture is being given at least ceremonial pride of place. More impactful to the visitor are the efforts to incorporate Māori cultural forms and symbols into everyday life. Auckland Art Gallery Toi o Tāmaki may offer the city’s best architectural example of blending the Māori and the European, the colonial and the modern. It is a work of art in itself, blending a 19th-century French chateau style with a modern timber and glass atrium. The original part of the building (now undergoing an extensive renovation) dates to 1887. It stands alongside a stunning contemporary extension. The Gallery — which is free — contains a collection of over 18,000 artworks. The portraits of Māori leaders by Charles Goldie are a treasure, artistically and ethnographically.
Lest We Forget: Auckland War Memorial Museum
Auckland War Memorial Museum is perched atop the dormant volcano Pukekawa, in the Auckland Domain, another wonderful park and a fitting name for a natural retreat in a city of one million souls. The Museum looms over the Domain. It is an impressive neoclassical building that would be at home on the Washington, DC Mall. It is also a sort of museum of everything, combining art with natural history. It is also a cenotaph. Completed in 1929, it memorialises New Zealand’s war dead. Far from the fighting in the Great War, New Zealand still sent a remarkably high proportion of its men overseas — roughly four out of ten of military age. On the Museum’s upper floor you will come across a simple, dignified memorial to those who fell, primarily in Europe. I came across similiar memorials in every city, town, and village I visited. The First World War is not forgotten — you might add that it is not even past — to invoke Faulkner’s comment on the American South. World War I is present today in Auckland and throughout New Zealand, in both the physical and cultural landscape.Museum terraces, harbor piers, railway crossings, and busy streets are the backdrops for these memorials to the many who made their way from this Pacific nation to France, Beligium, Turkey and elsewhere.
On my long flight over I read Richard Powers’ novel “Playground”. Much of it takes place on a small Pacific island but also within the ocean itself. It made me appreciate the fact that while 13 hours flying over the ocean might give the impression of emptiness, the Pacific is teeming with life. The novel is also full of admiration for the Polynesian people, especially their navigational genius and explorers’ daring. With this in mind, I was drawn to the Māori galleries. Most Māori artworks are carvings in wood or greenstone. Weaving too was important. The Māori had no fabric and no metal, yet they could fashion sails and build large structures. Their artworks are not only beautiful; each piece tells a story about the creation of the world, the gods, tribal and family genealogies, battles with other iwi, or the encounter with Europeans. They are texts — and many of them are coastal or ocean-facing texts, saturated with images of canoes, waves, and gods who rule the sea.
The museum’s volcanic exhibit was a treat, offering insights into the geological forces that have shaped Auckland. You can sit in a reproduced Auckland living room and experience a volcanic eruption, complete with “breaking news” reports on the living room television. We queued to enter, and then waited for what felt like a good while for something to happen. Tension built, perhaps purposefully, to make us think of the enormous tension building along the edges of the Pacific and Australian tectonic plates which cut across both islands. The slow, grinding movement of those plates is a reminder that the calm harbors and Pacific horizons outside the museum windows sit atop restless foundations.
Karangahape Road: Auckland’s Bohemian Heart
The next day I walked Karangahape Road, affectionately known to locals as “K Road.” It’s vibrant, a melting pot of cultures and subcultures with a colorful history. Once a main thoroughfare for Māori traveling between the Waitematā and Manukau harbors, it later became a bustling shopping district in the early 20th century. By the 1960s and 70s, it had transformed into a red-light district and hub for alternative culture. I can’t speak to any red-light district activity, but the vibe is cool — a little ragged, a little playful, and entirely in keeping with a port city accustomed to people washing up from all over the Pacific Rim.
Devonport: A Step Back in Time
The next morning, I took the ferry from downtown Auckland to Devonport. The short journey across the Waitematā Harbour offers views of the city skyline and the volcanic cone of Rangitoto Island, Auckland’s youngest and largest volcano. From the ferry deck, the city’s double-harbor geography resolves itself: a modern skyline strung between old volcanic cones and the open Pacific.
Devonport can feel like a step back in time. Its well-preserved Victorian architecture and quaint village atmosphere make it a worthwhile ferry ride. My two American friends and I spent the morning following the self-guided harbor tour. While finding the flagpole was a challenge, we enjoyed the history lesson behind each structure. The tour ends at Torpedo Bay Navy Museum. There the emphasis was on New Zealand’s involvement in World War II. We decided to climb North Head, a volcanic cone, instead. The reward was panoramic views of the Hauraki Gulf and Auckland’s skyline. The summit is also home to a network of military tunnels and gun emplacements, a reminder of the strategic importance of this location .
Auckland is worth a visitor’s time. Its diversity goes beyond its people. I loved its geological diversity. Built on a volcanic field that has shaped its history, culture, and economy, today it holds gleaming skyscrapers, restaurants representing nearly every Asian cuisine, centuries-old Māori place names, digital technology companies, and two volcanoes. From these you can see the harbor, the Hauraki Gulf, and, beyond them, the wide, wide Pacific Ocean that has been shaping Auckland and New Zealand for centuries.
I flew over 7,000 miles of Pacific Ocean to reach Auckland, New Zealand’s largest city. Arriving after two calendar days of travel, I was grateful to trade my economy-plus seat for a comfortable bed in a cell-like room in my modest hotel. Set on a narrow isthmus tightly gripped by the ocean, I would never be far from the Pacific, its deep waters or its volcanic Ring of Fire anywhere in Auckland or New Zealand. It is a place shaped by the ocean.
Auckland, The City of Sails, has long been a magnet for arrivals. Long before the first European settlers (mostly English) populated NZ in the late 18th century, the Māori people knew it as Tāmaki Makaurau. This translates roughly to “Tāmaki of a hundred lovers” also translated as “Tāmaki desired by many.” Assuming there were no volcanic eruptions at the time, it’s easy to see why the Auckland area was so desirable: two harbours (Waitematā to the east and Manukau on the west), a mild climate, and a completely natural environment. When the Maori first arrived around 1350 AD they were the first humans (and only the second mammal species) to set foot on Aotearoa, The Land of the Long White Cloud. It was virgin land, untouched by civilization.
NZ is recognised world-wide as a beautiful country and most travellers pass through Auckland quickly. That is a missed opportunity. Auckland is blessed with lovely parks. This is probably owed to the Auckland Volcanic Field. Young at about 250,000 years, this volcanic field is comprised of more than 50 volcanoes. The last time one erupted was 600 years ago when Rangitoto Island popped up in Hauraki Harbour. Western Park offers a glimpse into the topography that compelled the Maori to stay when they first arrived from thousands of miles away on rafts. Verdant, dense with trees and plants such as the emblematic Silver Ferm, the park is basically two merging gullies. The result is steep paths and wide vistas. Although Europeans introduced many new tree species here and throughout NZ, the park allows you to imagine how the landscape might have appeared to the first set of human eyes to behold it.
Walking around Auckland I found myself thinking of Singapore. The combination of skyscrapers and colonial buildings surrounded by ocean provided two pleasant parallels. Auckland is also a very Asian city, more Asians as a percentage than anywhere else in NZ. About 40% of Auckland’s population is foreign-born, and they are largely from Asian countries. On my hotel’s street alone you will pass a Korean BBQ joint, a sushi restaurant, a Taiwanese bubble tea store, and a Vietnamese pho stand. Auckland is also home to the largest Polynesian population of any city on earth,
New Zealand gets its English name from Abel Tasman who named the North Island after the Dutch province of Zeeland in 16. Auckland, now a city of 1.6 million, one third of all New Zealanders, was named by William Hobson. He chose the spot for New Zealand’s capital following a grant by Ngāti Whātua Ōrākei, the local iwi (tribe). Hobson honored his patron, George Eden, the Earl of Auckland, in the naming.
Names and language are powerful here. It won’t take a visitor long to see that NZ is officially bilingual. You will see Maori and English on signs. There are indigenous news and entertainment stations too. Te Tōangaroa, an area which includes Spark Arena and The Strand Railway Station, is in the process of having its original Māori name officially restored. The Waterfront’s Maori name is also being restored. To Te Tōangaroa, ”the dragging of waka (canoe) a long way to the shoreline.” The name encapsulates centuries of Māori maritime exploration in a single and perhaps challenging phrase.
The name changes are part of a larger project called Te Kete Rukuruku, which aims to collect and share the stories unique to Māori in Auckland. It’s a collaborative effort between iwi (tribes) and the Auckland Council, working to resurface the unique iwi identity of the region. This program is repeated throughout NZ.
It might be better to say that NZ is making a concerted effort to become bi-cultural. Long neglected, Maori culture is being given at least ceremonial pride of place. More impactful to the visitor, are the efforts to incorporate Maori cultural forms and symbols into everyday life. The no o Tāmaki — Auckland Gallery, may offer the city’s best architectural example of blending the Maori and the European, the colonial and the modern. It is a work of art in itself, blending a 19th-century French chateau style with a modern timber and glass atrium. The original part of the building (now undergoing an extensive renovation), dates to 1887. It stands alongside a stunning contemporary extension. The Gallery — which is free — contains a collection of over 18,000 artworks. The portraits of Maori leaders by Charles Goldie is a treasure.
Lest We Forget: Auckland War Memorial Museum
Auckland War Memorial Museum is perched atop the dormant volcano, Pukekawa, in the Auckland Domain, another wonderful park and a fitting name for a natural retreat in a city of one million souls. The Museum looms over the Domain. It an impressive neoclassical building that would be at home on the Washington, DC Mall. It is also sort of a museum of everything, combining art with natural history. It is also a cenotaph. Built in 1929 it memorialises New Zealand’s war dead. Far from the fighting in the Great War, about one in Four NZ men at the time fought in Europe. On the Museum’s upper floor you will come across a simple, dignified memorial to those who fell, primarily in Europe. I came across memorials in every city, town, and village I visited. The First World War is not forgotten — you might add that it is not even past — to invoke Faulkner’s comment on the American South. World War I is present today in Auckland and throughout New Zealand, in both the physical and cultural landscape.
On my long flight over I had read Richard Powers’ novel Playground. Much of it takes place on a small Pacific Island and also within the ocean itself. It made me appreciate the fact that while 13 hours flying over the ocean might give the impression of emptiness, the Pacific is teeming with life. The novel is also full of admiration for the Polynesian people, especially their navigational genius and explorer daring. With this in mind, I was drawn to the Māori galleries. Most Maori artwork are carvings in wood or greenstone. Weaving too was important. The Maori had no fabric and no metal yet they could fashion sails and build large structures. Their artworks are not only beautiful, each piece tells a story about the creation of the world, the gods, tribal and family genealogies, battles with other kiwi, or the encounter with Europeans. They are texts.
The museum’s volcanic exhibit was also interesting, offering insights into the geological forces that have shaped Auckland. You can sit in a reproduced Auckland living room and experience a volcanic eruption, complete with “breaking news” reports. We queued to enter. And then waited for what felt like a good wholr for something to happen. Tension built and maybe purposefully to make us think of the enormous tension building along the edges of the Pacific and Australian-Indian tectonic plates which cut across both islands.
Karangahape Road: Auckland’s Bohemian Heart
The next day I walked Karangahape Road, affectionately known to locals as “K Road.” It’s vibrant, a melting pot of cultures and subcultures with a colorful history. Once a main thoroughfare for Māori traveling between the Waitematā and Manukau harbors, it later became a bustling shopping district in the early 20th century. By the 1960s and 70s, it had transformed into a red-light district and hub for alternative culture. I can’t speak to any Red Light District activity vut the vibe is kool.
Devonport: A Step Back in Time
The next morning, I took the ferry from downtown Auckland to Devonport. The short journey across the Waitemata Harbour offers views of the city skyline and the volcanic cone of Rangitoto Island, Auckland’s youngest and largest volcano.
Devonport can feel like a step back in time. Its well-preserved Victorian architecture and quaint village atmosphere make it a worthwhile ferry ride. I and my two American friends spent the morning following the self-guided harbor tour. While finding the flagpole was a challenge, we enjoyed the history lesson behind each structure. The tour ends at Torpedo Bay Navy Museum. There the emphasis was on New Zealand’s involvement in World War II. We decided to climb North Head, a volcanic cone. The reward was a panoramic views of the Hauraki Gulf and Auckland’s skyline. The summit is also home to a network of military tunnels and gun emplacements, a reminder of the strategic importance of this location during times of war.
Auckland is worth a visitor’s time. Its diversity goes beyond its people. I loved its geological diversity too. Built on a volcanic field that has shaped its history, culture, and economy, today it holds gleaming skyscrapers, restaurants from every Asian country, centuries-old Māori placenames, digital technology companies, and two volcanic cones. From these you can see the harbor and the wide, wide Pacific ocean beyond.