Kiwi Auckland

Auckland is a sophisticated city that provides you with an array of cosmopolitan experiences, says Jeroo Irani

Auckland turned out to be a very well developed city, au contraire to what a co-passenger on our flight had related. His version had been that in the old days visitors to New Zealand were advised to turn their clocks back 30 years. However, one look at Auckland, also known as the City of Sails, and it was clear that the tired old joke no longer has any validity. The Auckland International Airport itself is sleek and modern sprawling over 3,700 acres. With its vibrant waterfront, busy downtown district and upbeat nightlife and shopping, Auckland is a young city with a mindset of youthful exuberance.

As we drove from the airport (located 21 kms from Auckland’s central business district) to our hotel, the geography of the city fell into place. Auckland sprawls casually between two harbours – Waitemata Harbour and Manukau Harbour. The city was founded in 1840 as the country’s capital – a title that it lost to Wellington 25 years later. With a big-screen panorama of sky, sea and ships serving as a backdrop, one does not find here the ghastliness of packed humanity. Most of the city is built on extinct volcanoes which are now hilly parks and gardens. One of them, Rangitoto, a volcano that was active until only 200 years ago, broods at the harbour entrance. Grand harbour views including the elegant lines of the Auckland Harbour Bridge, and a clutch of islands in the Hauraki Gulf are part of the scenic mosaic of Auckland. Downtown, glass sheathed towers spook the skyline and rush hour traffic slows down to a crawl. We checked into our hotel, equipped with all the creature comforts and located close to the sleek Sky Tower - Auckland’s most bustling address.

There is an apocryphal story that the worldwide craze for jogging began in Auckland, way back in April l962. True or not, Aucklanders have taken to the sport with a style and determination of their own - holding annual marathons to test the fitness of joggers. Aucklanders are also obsessed with the sea, a longtime resident informed us. And if yachtsmen have a special place called paradise, the city’s denizens regard it as being at their doorstep. The harbour in fact seethes with luxury yachts, cruisers and powerboats, as virtually every resident of Auckland worth his or her salt, owns a yacht. (Aucklanders reportedly have the highest number of boats per head of population in New Zealand and the world). This lifestyle is supported by a prosperous economy. Tourism, the country’s largest revenue earner, is on the upswing especially with the release of the film ‘Lord Of The Rings’ which has boosted Auckland’s other sectors such as business and finance as well. With the growing perception of New Zealand as the world’s safest yet most spectacular tourism destination, visitor arrivals into Auckland, the prelude to most Kiwi jaunts, are rising. In fact tourist arrivals from India into New Zealand have seen phenomenal growth in recent years, around 100 per cent over the last two years, said George Hickton, CEO, Tourism New Zealand, at a travel trade and press meet in Mumbai. Playing host to the Americas Cup for 2002 and 2003 greatly benefited Auckland too. The welcome mat is out for tourists in Auckland and New Zealand at large, and hospitality seems to come naturally to the Kiwis.

A kind of cultural restlessness stirs in this Kiwi gateway, for the city is multi-racial, drawing Europeans, Asians, and native Maoris. On one occasion we even saw Samoan men stroll down the sidewalks in traditional sarong-style lavalava while businessmen in suits and ties pulled away in sleek cars. We heard the sounds of a dozen different Pacific and European tongues blend with the clipped cadence of English. We never saw a bedraggled soul trailing through the trendy shops and nifty restaurants. People were generally polite, salespeople unflustered and even anti-nuclear protesters were gracefully discreet. This melting pot aura is also reflected in the dining options. New Zealand cuisine is a melding of Pacific, Asian and European influences and marked by culinary innovation. Seafood is their forte and so are the wines. While Auckland has over 900 restaurants serving haute cuisine and providing white glove service, there are trendy brasseries and cafes aplenty. The culinary hot spots are clustered in the downtown waterfront area around the Viaduct Basin on Prince’s Wharf. It’s the place to head any night of the week for dinner or a late-night drink.

Generally speaking, New Zealand is not a watering hole for party animals and night owls; one can’t expect a great concentration of entertainment in a country of four million people. Auckland however is pretty lively. After sunset, Auckland’s happening area is Parnell, which has numerous bars, restaurants, and nightclubs. Ponsby Road’s restaurants cater to different palates and these are also hip, while Parnell Road has up-market spiffy eateries mixed with boutiques and galleries. The offerings at Karangahape Road and Mission Bay are more casual.

Sailing in Auckland
For those of you looking at a time out of business or looking at combining business with pleasure what better way to truly appreciate Auckland, often referred to as the City of Sails, than to take to the high seas in a sailboat? You could even have a conference, corporate lunch, dinner or coffee cruise pre-arranged. Each boat accommodates about 21 people and if you’re travelling as an incentive group, this is a great option. You could sail not just any sailboat, but an American Cup match sailing vessel from the fleet of Pride of Auckland. The company offers visitors to the premier city of New Zealand a number of options from 45-minute sailing experiences and coffee, lunch and dinner cruises to American Cup style racing on four of its 50 feet long yachts. It offers a spectacular view of the downtown district of the city with the Sky Tower dominating the skyline.

For more information on Pride of Auckland log on to www.prideofauckland.com

Shoppers’ delight
The shopaholic can trawl Queen Street, Auckland’s main boulevard studded with small shops as well as big department stores. Shopping malls are scattered all over the city, the flagship one being St Lukes with over 120 specialty stores and a massive food court. Shopping is also a great opportunity to interact with the locals. Before you make a purchase you will be asked where you are from and your answer will be greeted by expressions of awe and surprise. Sheepskins, woollens, Maori carvings, jewellery (especially greenstone which is a kind of jade) and leather items make excellent buys. Apart from possessing an almost incandescent beauty, Auckland has some interesting sights such as museums, historic buildings, and verdant parks as well as opportunities to dine out and shop. The city is also a veritable Disneyland of scenic drives. One Tree Hill in Cornwall Park offers excellent views while the Domain is a green precinct of playing fields and gardens in the heart of Auckland. The Auckland War Memorial Museum, an ethnological and natural history collection, stands at an elevation in the Domain. South of the Domain is Auckland’s highest point, Mt Eden, which rises 196 metre above the city. The Maoris called it the Tree-clad Mountain.

Tired of Auckland’s big city charms? A half hour’s drive from the centre of the city to the west coast leads you to beaches as stunning as any in the world, their names reflecting their Maori origins - Karekare, Muriwai, Anawhata, Te Henga. Here black cliffs and huge breakers provide a dramatic backdrop to the urban spread. The east coast by contrast is almost domestic and the beautiful beaches echo the English colonial days of the 19th century with names like Cheltenham and Torbay. From downtown Auckland, visitors can take a ferry to one of the many islands, the major ones being Rangitoto, Waiheke and Great Barrier Island. These are accessible by ferry or light aircraft. Most visitors head out of Auckland to see the Waitomo Glow-worm Caves. This is a series of chambers and galleries penetrated by the Waitomo river. We sailed in complete silence in a boat to experience the luminescent beauty of the Glow-worm Grotto. The light was exuded by thousands of glow-worms which are in reality the larvae of a mosquito-like fly. With tail light shimmering, the larva swings to and fro in a kind of diaphanous hammock, letting down sticky threads to catch midges which breed in the water. Despite their undeniable spooky beauty, the Glow-worm Caves weren’t the highlight of our visit as much as the wedding that we gate-crashed, on the outskirts of Auckland, on our way to our second stop - Rotorua. A wedding in a roadside church where tourists are made embarrassingly welcome was one of the unexpected and delightful surprises of our visit. The hospitality of the locals is overwhelming; we finally understood why our friends had warned us, prior to our visit: “Watch out! New Zealand is a great place to visit and you may never want to leave.”