AUCKLAND

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The Auckland metropolitan area (commonly pronounced /ˈɔːklənd/), in the North Islandof New Zealand, is the largest and most populous urban area in the country with a population of over 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. In Māori Auckland's name is Tāmaki-makau-rau, or the transliterated version of Auckland, Ākarana.

The 2010 Mercer Quality of Living Survey ranked Auckland 4th equal place in the world on its list, while The Economist's World's Most Livable Cities index of 2010 ranked Auckland in 10th place. In 2008, Auckland was 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 theWaitemata 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.                    JOBS

 Auckland, New Zealand’s largest population centre, is poised between two enormous harbours and dotted with extinct volcanic cones. The region is a fusion of four cities – Auckland, Manukau, North Shore and Waitakere – with cultural elements that span from Polynesia and Asia to the United Kingdom and Eastern Europe. While Auckland acts as a gateway to New Zealand, it’s also a destination in its own right. Visitors can explore the islands of the Hauraki Gulf by ferry or charter boat, walk the forest tracks of the Waitakere Ranges, follow wine trails and enjoy the relaxing pleasures of urban life by the sea. 

Functional facts: Approx. population 1.3 million, international airport, cruise ship port, several i-SITE visitor centres.refer