Auckland is one of the largest and most beautiful cities in the world. It has always been in the top 5 most desirable cities to live in the world. What makes Auckland so desirable? Like any other iconic city Auckland has its own set of Wonders and Jewels. Please read the article on Eight Jewels of Auckland. Auckland is unique, majestic and one of a kind. It is twice the size of London and has the largest Polynesian population in the world. The metropolitan is home to 145 nationalities from around the world. Very few if any city in the world can boost that. Below are the Eight Wonders of Auckland in no particular order.
SKY CITY
The tallest structure in the southern hemisphere, the backbone of NZ economy, the most photographed building in NZ and with maximum appearances on post cards. This is definitely the no 1 wonder of Auckland.
SKYCITY Auckland (or often just SKYCITY) is a casino and event centre in the Central Business District of Auckland, New Zealand. Located at the base of the Sky Tower, it was the second casino in New Zealand, and still is the only one in Auckland.
In addition to the Sky Tower, the complex includes a 700 seat theatre, a convention centre, 12 bars and restaurants, and two hotels. The main feature however is the casino itself, with over 1,600 gaming machines, and over 100 tables with games such as blackjack and roulette. The casino was most recently refurbished in 2006. The casino also has the 'Pacific Room' (table games) and the 'Platinum Room' (game machines) for VIP / high-stakes gamblers.The casino has a large percentage of Asian customers, and undertakes special initiatives to cater for them.
The Sky Tower,convention centre and hotel were all built by Fletcher Construction and completed by 1997.
SkyCity was the second casino in the country. At the time of its construction, it was controversial, just like the Sky Tower itself. Unlike the cities icon towering above it, major figures like former Auckland Mayor Dick Hubbard have remained critical of the casino, though he acknowledged that the complex itself has been positive for the city. However, there is criticism from various sources that the casino creates problem gambling and does not ban problem gamblers proactively enough.
The casino provides almost 2000 jobs (as of January 2006), and has returned NZ$670 million in dividends to mainly Australian shareholders, from more than eight million visitors that have passed through, 15% from overseas. NZ$18.6 million dollars were also paid to community organisations and trusts in the same time. 1.5% of the operating profit has to be paid out to charity according to law.
With profits at its parent, the SKYCITY Entertainment Group, falling, it has recently (May 2007) been announced that around 230 staff of Sky City would be let go within the coming 12–18 months, though it was considered that this was likely to be mostly through turnover attrition, and will be focused on management staff.
Rainbows End
The place to be if you want some fun, entertainment and want to have an eventful time. With joy rides to delicious cuisines to on going shows, this place has everything you need to have a perfect family picnic. It’s got more than something for everyone and people of all ages can have a time of their lives.
Rainbow's End is a 9.3 ha theme park in Auckland, New Zealand that opened in December, 1982. The park, wholly owned subsidiary of New Zealand Experience Ltd, is currently New Zealand's largest theme park. The park currently employs between 50 and 200 staff both full time and part time depending on the time of year.
Opened in 1982, the park recently (2010) has extended its lease for another 24 years (after 5 years of discussions with Manukau City Council), though it will have to reduce its size by 0.4 ha from 9.3 ha to allow for new construction at the nearby law courts (being compensated for the land lost). The agreement with Council also commits the company to re-invest $3 million every three years into new rides or upgrades.
One Tree Hill
One Tree Hill or the hill with the view. This hill offers you the most amazing 360 degrees panoramic view of the Auckland city.
One Tree Hill (also known as Maungakiekie) is a 182 metre volcanic peak located in Auckland, New Zealand. It is an important memorial place for both Maori and other New Zealanders. The suburb around the base of the hill is also called One Tree Hill; it is surrounded by the suburbs of Royal Oak to the west, and clockwise, Epsom, Greenlane, Oranga, and Onehunga.
The hill's scoria cones erupted 20,000 - 30,000 years ago, creating lava flows that covered an area of 20 square kilometres, mostly towards Onehunga, making it the largest (in terms of area covered) of the Auckland volcanic field. The summit provides views across the Auckland area, and allows visitors to see both of Auckland's harbours.
Due to the use of the hilltop as a nightly party stop for boy racers and other (often drunk) groups of youths, it was decided in 2008 to close off the road access to the summit at night. While walking up to the hilltop will still be possible at night, it is hoped that this move will reduce vandalism. The police intend to continue monitoring the locality after hours.
The Maori name Maungakiekie translates to 'mountain of the kiekie vine', though other translations give the meaning as 'totara that stands alone'. The mountain and its surrounds were home to the Te Wai o Hua tribe, since the early 1700s and probably before that time. Other Maori tribes in the Auckland area can also trace their ancestry to the mountain.
Maungakiekie was the largest and most important Maori Pa in pre-European times. The cone and its surroundings are estimated to have been home to a population of up to 5,000. At this time, the Nga Marama chief Kiwi Tamaki held the pa and used its strategic placement to exact tribute from travellers passing from Northland to the rest of the North Island through the rich isthmus. Its position between the Waitemata Harbour to the East (opening upon the Pacific Ocean) and the Manukau Harbour to the West (opening onto the Tasman Sea) offered a wide variety of seafood from the two harbours. The volcanic soil of the slopes of the mountain proved highly fertile and easy to defend from raiding parties from other tribes due to its steep sides and imposing palisades. The inhabitants terraced the hill extensively, and it is considered to be the largest prehistoric earthwork fortifications worldwide. It is also the largest and most complex volcanic cone / earth fortress known in the Southern Hemisphere.Kelly Tarltons
Kelly Tarlton's Underwater World is a public aquarium in Auckland, New Zealand that was opened in 1985. It was the brainchild of New Zealand marine archeologist and diver Kelly Tarlton (1937-1985). Built in disused sewage storage tanks, the aquarium used a new form of acrylic shaping, which allowed curved tunnels rather than viewing areas with flat panels only, as in previous aquariums. The project is also one of the first to use conveyor belts to slowly move people through the viewing areas.In 1983, Kelly Tarlton proposed building an aquarium in unused sewage tanks underground on the Auckland waterfront. Fish would be viewed through a long acrylic tunnel.
The aquarium opened in 1985 after 10 months of construction. Tarlton developed a new method of building an acrylic tunnel by taking large sheets of clear acrylic, cutting them to size and heating them in an oven until they took the shape of the mould. Some of the sheets weighed over one tonne. Because of the refraction caused by light traveling through water, and the acrylic sheets used in the creation of the tunnel, the fish appear to be one third smaller than they are.
A 110-metre (360 ft) tunnel was created in sewage storage tanks that had been unused since the 1960s. The tanks are located below the suburb of Orakei, on Tamaki Drive and overlooking the Waitemata Harbour.Once the tunnels were in place and the tanks filled to test for leaks (none were found) a seascape of caves and reefs was created using concrete before the basins were filled in one section with a careful selection of more than 1,800 marine creatures. Another section was filled with sharks (including bronze whaler, sevengill shark, wobbegong, school shark) and stingrays. The sharks are only held for a short period of time before being released back into the area where they were caught.
In 1994 the facility was expanded to include a replica of the hut used by Captain Robert Falcon Scott on his tragic expedition to Antarctica, as well as a colony of Antarctic penguins in a climate controlled exhibit.
In December 2004 the aquarium opened Stingray Bay, which features a giant 350,000-litre (92,000 USgal) open topped tank that is 2.6 metres (8 ft 6.4 in) at its deepest point and constructed of crystal clear acrylic for optimum viewing.
In 2008, Village Roadshow purchased the facility, for NZD $13 million. Village Roadshow also owns Sydney Aquarium, Oceanworld Manly, Sea World Gold Coast, and other venues.
Auckland Viaduct Harbour
Viaduct Basin (often Viaduct Harbour) is a former commercial harbour on the Auckland waterfront, now turned into a development of mostly upscale apartments, office space and restaurants. It is located on the site of a formerly run-down area of the Freemans Bay / Auckland CBD waterfront in Auckland City, New Zealand. As a centre of activity of the 2000 America's Cup hosted by the Royal New Zealand Yacht Squadron, the area enjoyed considerable popularity with locals and foreign visitors.Designed along the line of the basins common in London, the Viaduct Basin is so-called because of a failed scheme by the Auckland Harbour Board in the early years of the 20th Century. As the size of ships were increasing dramatically rather than to build new wharves or dredge the harbour channels, it was proposed that cargo ships moor out in the Waitamata harbour channel and be unloaded into "lighters", small barges that would then ferry the goods to shore via the specially built wharves in the new "Viaduct Lighter Basin". The shipping companies refused to co-operate and forced the Harbour Board to engage in dredging and construct new wharves.
This left the newly completed lighter basin without a real purpose, so it was used to berth the various fishing boats and thus tidy up the appearance of the Auckland waterfront further east. Next to the Viaduct Basin a fish market and various warehouses were constructed, including Turners & Growers Ltd, the city's main produce wholesalers. Timber mills were also found in the area, and the far side of the area was connected by a mechanical bridge that was able to be raised to allow passage into the basin to the fishing vessels which used it.In time, the early Europeans settlers in the area moved to other areas, especially after the motorway construction through the Victoria Park area in the 1950s, and were replaced by labourers arriving from the Pacific Islands as well as Māori newly come to the city. They were living in increasingly derelict housing.
The development of the Viaduct Basin in the late 1990s as a mixed-use area of apartments and restaurants has been an uneven success. Some of the resulting buildings are considered very handsome, and the area was provided with a good selection of public, and semi-public spaces. In the basin itself are moored a colourful array of working boats and yachts, some of which are available for charter. The Auckland City Council has initiated a programme of public artworks for the area.However some of the new residents of the area have objected to the use of the public spaces for events on the grounds of noise, so the attractive and expensive hard landscaping is less used than originally intended, since the area was designed as a setting for ongoing use by large crowds of people as it saw during the America's Cup in 2000. Some local residents have also objected to the high prices charged by the restaurants and shops. Noise and security issues connected with the local venues and eateries are also an ongoing concern as the Viaduct Basin continues to be a popular attraction for Auckland residents and tourists.
The local apartment owners are described as a relatively affluent and somewhat older demographic, with many using their apartments only as their 'city home' while living on places like Waiheke Island during the weekend. Residents have also complained of the fact that few residents know each other, and that a community spirit is mostly absent in the spanking new quarter, at least in the years after development.
Adjacent to the area are the National Maritime Museum, the Tepid Baths pools, Victoria Park and the stylish Princes Wharf development. The Auckland CBD and main waterfront areas are directly to the east of the development, while the Northern Motorway a short distance to the west allows connection to parts beyond.
Waitakere Ranges
The Waitakere Ranges are a chain of hills in the Auckland metropolitan area, generally running approximately 25 km (15.5 mi) from north to south, 25 km west of central Auckland, New Zealand. The maximum elevation within the ranges is 474 m (1555 ft). The ranges and surrounding areas were traditionally known to local Māori as Te Wao Nui a Tiriwa (The Great Forest of Tiriwa).The western coastline of the ranges consists of cliffs exceeding 300 m (984 ft), interspersed infrequently with beaches. The rugged upstanding topography is formed from erosion resistant ancient volcanic conglomerate and lava flows laid down in eruptions 12–25 million years ago. The ranges are covered in native forest, most of which is in the process of regeneration since extensive logging and farming in the mid–late 19th and early 20th centuries.
In 1894 a group led by Sir Algernon Thomas (the first professor of natural sciences at Auckland University College, now the University of Auckland) persuaded the Auckland City Council to preserve 3,500 acres (14 km²) in the Nihotupu area of the ranges as a bush reserve. In 1895 the national Government vested the land, and several other smaller areas of the ranges, in the City Council as "reserves for the conservation of native flora and fauna". The Waitakere Ranges Regional Park now contains about 39,500 acres (160 km²).[1] The area is also protected under the Waitakere Ranges Heritage Area Act 2008.[2]
Five reservoirs within the ranges supply water to the Auckland region. The ranges receive an average of over 2,000 mm (78.75 inches) of rainfall annually while the corresponding rate in the city is less than half that. As weather systems approach across the Tasman Sea, their path is blocked by the ranges causing a small uplift sufficient for the system to dump.
The area is home to kauri snails, glowworms and native long-tailed bats. Long-tailed and short-tailed bats are New Zealand’s only native land-based mammals. At the northern end of the ranges, Otakamiro Point is the site of one of New Zealand’s few mainland gannet breeding colonies. In the bush are many indigenous invertebrates, including kauri snail, weta and oviparous peripatus (Onychophora) with 14 pairs of legs, and ovoviviparous species of 15 and 16 pairs of legs, none of which are members of any of the five scientifically described New Zealand species.Some of the ranges' main attractions are: the four popular surf beaches, Muriwai, Te Henga (Bethells Beach), Piha and Karekare; an extensive network of bush walks and tracks; and panoramic views of the east and west coasts and the city. A road, aptly named Scenic Drive, runs a good portion of the length of the ranges from Titirangi to Swanson. The Auckland Regional Council operates an information centre near the Titirangi end.
The beaches are typical of west coast beaches north of Taranaki in that they are all black sand beaches. They have a reputation of being dangerous for swimmers due to rips and large swells.
On January 11, 2010, the Auckland Regional Council opened the Hillary Trail, a 70 km trail running roughly north-south through the Waitakere Ranges, named in honour of the New Zealand mountaineer Sir Edmund Hillary.
Auckland Harbour Bridge
The Auckland Harbour Bridge is an eight-lane box truss motorway bridge over the Waitemata Harbour, joining St Marys Bay in Auckland with Northcote in North Shore City, New Zealand. The bridge is part of State Highway 1 and the Auckland Northern Motorway. It is the second-longest road bridge in New Zealand, and the longest in the North Island.
The bridge has a length of 1,020 m (3,348 ft), with a main span of 243.8 m, rising 43.27 m above high water allowing ships access to the deepwater wharf at the Chelsea Sugar Refinery west of it (one of the few wharves needing such access west of the bridge, a proposed Te Atatu port having never been realised).
While considered an Auckland icon, there has also been criticism, from the nickname of 'coathanger' due to its shape, to complaints that it mimics the Sydney Harbour Bridge in copyist fashion. Many also see the original construction of the bridge without walking, cycling and rail facilities as a big oversight.
The bridge sees a small number of suicide attempts each year, with people jumping into the Waitemata Harbour below, and between one and two people each year dying from the fall.
Bungy operator AJ Hackett operates a 40m bungy jump from the bridge. They also offer a bridge climb with views of the city and the harbour.
Prior to construction of the bridge, the quickest way from Auckland to the North Shore was via ferry. By road, the shortest route from Auckland to the North Shore was via the Northwestern Motorway (then only completed between Great North Road and Lincoln Road), Massey, Riverhead, and Albany; a distance of approximately 50 kilometres (31 mi).
As early as 1860, engineer Fred Bell, commissioned by North Shore farmers wanting to herd animals to market in Auckland, and had proposed a harbour crossing in the general vicinity of the current bridge. It would have used floating pontoons, but the plan failed due to the £16,000 cost estimate; NZ$1.6 million in inflation-adjusted terms (2009).
At the time of the 1950s, when bridge plans were finally realised, North Shore was still a very rural area of barely 50,000 people, offering relatively few jobs, and its growth rate was half that of the Auckland south of the Waitemata. Opening up the area via a new main road connection was to unlock the potential for further expansion of Auckland.
Queen Street
Queen Street is the major commercial thoroughfare in the Auckland CBD, Auckland, New Zealand's main population centre. It starts at Queens Wharf on the Auckland waterfront, adjacent to the Britomart Transport Centre and the Downtown Ferry Terminal, and runs uphill for almost three kilometres in a mostly straight south-southwesterly direction towards the Karangahape Road ridge, and the residential suburbs in the interior of the Auckland isthmus.
Named after Queen Victoria, Queen Street was an early development of the new town of Auckland (founded in 1840) although initially the main street was intended to be Shortland Street, running parallel to the shore of Commercial Bay. The early route of Queen Street led up the middle of a gully following the bank of the Waihorotiu Stream (later bounded in as the 'Ligar Canal'). This canal was culverted beneath the street from the 1870s onward, allowing for further development of the street to be undertaken. The course of the stream is still reflected today in the slight bend of lower Queen Street. From north of Shortland Street, Queen Street is built on land reclaimed from the sea in the late 19th century.
There are several other 'Queen Streets' in the greater Auckland area, mostly in suburbs that were separate towns before being absorbed by a growing central city. Auckland was also called the "Queen City" since before the turn of the 20th century, though that term is now overshadowed by the nickname "City of Sails".
Settlement in the Queen Street area began in 1841 with a number of wooden buildings along the western side, following the general path of the Waihorotiu Stream according to the plans set out by surveyor Felton Mathew. While the street was metalled in 1843 ('metal' is a New Zealand term for gravel road), the natural stream still often overflowed its banks, and the area was still swampy. This led to canalisation and later covering-over of the stream.
