Auckland

Author: Eye on Auckland

Picture by Wikipedia user Taifarious1.

Auckland is a Lifestyle Capital, one of the World's most desirable cities to live, work and play in. The Mercer quality of life index places Auckland at #4, the Economist's most livable cities index places Auckland at #10 and the lifestyle/design bible - Monocle, places Auckland at #20.

Auckland City is currently divided into 7 regions (each with their own Mayor) but that is about to change. On 1 November 2010 Auckland will become a Super City (with one Super Mayor) - the largest Super City in Australasia. Auckland will be divided into 13 wards: Albany Ward, Albert-Eden-Roskill Ward, Franklin Ward, Howick Ward, Manukau Ward, Manurewa-Papakura Ward, Maungakiekie-Tamaki Ward, North Shore Ward, Orakei Ward, Rodney Ward, Waitakere Ward, Waitemata-Gulf Ward and Whau Ward.

The Auckland metropolitan area is the largest and most populous urban area in the country with a population approaching 1.4 million residents, 31 percent of the country's population. Demographic trends indicate that it will continue to grow faster than the rest of the country. Increasingly cosmopolitan, Auckland also has the largest Polynesian population of any city in the world, and has seen many people of Asian ethnicity move there in the last two decades.

Auckland is classified as an Alpha-City in the World Cities Study Group’s inventory by Loughborough University, the only one in the country. Auckland lies between the Hauraki Gulf of the Pacific Ocean to the east, the low Hunua Ranges to the south-east, the Manukau Harbour to the south-west, and the Waitakere Ranges and smaller ranges to the west and north-west. The central part of the urban area occupies a narrow isthmus between the Manukau Harbour on the Tasman Sea and the Waitemata Harbour on the Pacific Ocean. It is one of the few cities in the world to have harbours on two separate major bodies of water.