Flag of Auckland
Auckland
is the largest city in
New Zealand
. About 2 million people live in the
Auckland region
.
[1]
For a short time in New Zealand's history it was the
capital city
. Now
Wellington
is the capital city.
Auckland is in the north of the
North Island
. It is on two
harbours
: the Manukau and Waitemata harbours. It is known as the "City of Sails" because there are many sailing boats in the city. The Hauraki Gulf has many different islands and provides safe anchorage and good sailing that is recognised around the world. It has a temperate
oceanic climate
(
Cfb
in the
Koppen climate classification
).
Auckland is built on a series of
dormant volcanos
. The youngest and largest of these is called Rangitoto. Rangitoto is an island just a few kilometres from the city centre. It has many
pohutukawas
, native trees also known as the New Zealand Christmas tree because of their brilliant red flowers which bloom in December.
In 2010,
Len Brown
became the 1st Mayor of Auckland. In 2016, he was replaced by
Phil Goff
.
Wikimedia Commons has media related to
Auckland
.
View of the
Central Business District
According to the
NIWA
, Auckland has a subtropical climate, with warm, humid summers and mild, rainy winters.
[2]
Under
Koppen's climate classification
, the city has an
oceanic climate
(
Cfb
).
[3]
It is the warmest main centre of New Zealand and is also one of the sunniest, with an average of over 2000 sunshine hours per annum.
[4]
The average daily maximum temperature is 23.7 °C (74.7 °F) in February and 14.7 °C (58.5 °F) in July. The absolute maximum recorded temperature is 34.4 °C (93.9 °F),
[5]
while the absolute minimum is ?0.6 °C (30.9 °F).
[5]
High levels of rainfall occur almost year?round with an average of 1,212.4 millimetres (47.7 in) per year spread over 136 rain days, but is most frequent in Winter.
[4]
Snowfall
in Auckland is extremely rare; recorded instances include 27 July 1939
[6]
and 15 August 2011, although without any accumulation.
[7]
The early morning calm on the isthmus during settled weather, before the sea breeze rises, was described as early as 1853: "In all seasons, the beauty of the day is in the early morning. At that time, generally, a solemn stillness holds, and a perfect calm prevails...".
[8]
Many Aucklanders use this time of day to walk and run in parks.
Auckland occasionally suffers from air pollution due to
fine particle
emissions.
[9]
There are also occasional breaches of guideline levels of
carbon monoxide
.
[10]
While maritime winds normally disperse the pollution relatively quickly it can sometimes become visible as smog, especially on calm winter days.
[11]
The west of Auckland is slightly wetter and cooler than the eastern side, with the gulf islands being warmer and drier still.
Wikivoyage has a travel guide about:
Auckland