Auckland, NZ’s largest urban area, straddles the isthmus between the Hauraki Gulf on the east coast and the Manukau Harbour on the west coast of the North Island. Auckland City Council is one of five municipalities that administer the region which extends more than 30 km from Albany and the East Coast Bays in the north to Papakura in the south, and which accommodates a million people, more than a quarter of the country’s population. The other municipalities are Manukau City, North Shore City Council, Waitakere City Council and the Papakura District Council. Auckland is also NZ’s leading seaport, airport and commercial and industrial centre, and continues to be the fastest-growing region. It is the most cosmopolitan city in the country and, as the main tourist and trade gateway, it is more metropolitan in tone than many much larger and more populous secondary cities in other countries.

The settlement and later the province were named after the first Earl of Auckland, George Eden, who was Governor-

In 1853 the Province of Auckland was established, the largest of the six throughout the country, with the 39th parallel as the southern boundary, running from Mahia on the east coast through to the Whanganui River on the west. It was the most populous town and province in the 1850s, but its European population was surpassed first by Otago and then by Canterbury during the 1860s and 1870s. It regained the lead just before the end of the century and has held it ever since.

General of India when the settlement of Auckland was founded. Previously the Earl had been First Lord of the Admiralty and had given Hobson command of HMS Rattlesnake in which he first visited NZ in 1837.