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Auckland Highs and Lows
New Zealand's pretty, vapid capital
Otherwise reasonable Kiwis are easily riled up by one subject: Just ask anyone who doesn't live there how much they hate Auckland. It's funny. I mean, you'd think they would save the vitriol for their dominant continental neighbor Australia (a serious "footy" and rugby rival), but no. As the trendy shopgirl in a Wellington boutique summed it up, "Naw, I don't really mind the Aussies. But I hate Aucklanders. Bleech!"
When you're in Auckland, located on the thinnest strip of North Island with views dotted by 50 surrounding smaller islands including Waiheke and Great Barrier, it's hard to imagine what exactly is so objectionable about this serene coastal city that boasts the largest boat ownership per capita in the world. I mean, it's where they filmed Xena: Warrior Princess for God's sake! And Auckland also has no fewer than 80 of New Zealand's vineyards, including Stonyridge, which produces the infamous $500 a bottle Larose, one of the top 10 cabernet blends in the world.
Seventy percent of all visitors enter the country through Auckland and likewise, residents leave from here when traveling internationally. One and a quarter million people live here, roughly one-third of New Zealand's total population (though 40 percent were born elsewhere), in a predictable urban and suburban sprawl connected by buzzing freeways that resemble any city of its size. But uniquely, Auckland is also 24 percent Polynesian, making it the largest Polynesian city in the world.
But back to what's to HATE, well, I guess obvious comparisons are made to Sydney and Los Angeles. I suppose you could say that Aucklanders do have a bit of those cities' plastic gloss (designer labels and surgical enhancements notwithstanding), only noticeable because it is so completely lacking elsewhere in New Zealand. And the city has its gimmicks, like the Sky Tower: At 1,076 feet, it's the tallest building in the Southern Hemisphere and houses the popular Sky City casino. The world-record bungee jump was executed off the top of the tower, and now tourists pay $195 a pop to replicate it via the 639-foot Sky Jump (you're wrapped up like a taco in a bungee-like harness that somehow stops a few feet from the cement pavement below).
When you're in Auckland, located on the thinnest strip of North Island with views dotted by 50 surrounding smaller islands including Waiheke and Great Barrier, it's hard to imagine what exactly is so objectionable about this serene coastal city that boasts the largest boat ownership per capita in the world. I mean, it's where they filmed Xena: Warrior Princess for God's sake! And Auckland also has no fewer than 80 of New Zealand's vineyards, including Stonyridge, which produces the infamous $500 a bottle Larose, one of the top 10 cabernet blends in the world.
Seventy percent of all visitors enter the country through Auckland and likewise, residents leave from here when traveling internationally. One and a quarter million people live here, roughly one-third of New Zealand's total population (though 40 percent were born elsewhere), in a predictable urban and suburban sprawl connected by buzzing freeways that resemble any city of its size. But uniquely, Auckland is also 24 percent Polynesian, making it the largest Polynesian city in the world.
But back to what's to HATE, well, I guess obvious comparisons are made to Sydney and Los Angeles. I suppose you could say that Aucklanders do have a bit of those cities' plastic gloss (designer labels and surgical enhancements notwithstanding), only noticeable because it is so completely lacking elsewhere in New Zealand. And the city has its gimmicks, like the Sky Tower: At 1,076 feet, it's the tallest building in the Southern Hemisphere and houses the popular Sky City casino. The world-record bungee jump was executed off the top of the tower, and now tourists pay $195 a pop to replicate it via the 639-foot Sky Jump (you're wrapped up like a taco in a bungee-like harness that somehow stops a few feet from the cement pavement below).
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