Auckland Hotels

Hotels in Aukland New Zealand are often required for tourists who require short term accommodation. Some tourists may want to see the culture, history, tourist attractions and society of the famous city. Some tourists may want to stay at a large hotel or a small hotel. Some tourists may want to stay at luxury hotels or cheap hotels. Some tourists may want to stay at hotels that have a good reputation and that has a good status. Some tourists may want to stay at a hotel that have good parking.

Hotels in the city of Auckland are often required for tourists who require short term accommodation in the city. Some may want to see the culture, history and tourist attractions of the city.

The Auckland metropolitan area or Greater Auckland, in the North Island of New Zealand. It is a conurbation, made up of Auckland City (excluding the Hauraki Gulf islands), North Shore City, and the urban parts of Waitakere and Manukau cities, along with Papakura District and some nearby urban parts of Rodney and Franklin Districts. In Ma-ori its name is Ta-maki-makau-rau, or the transliterated version of Auckland, A-karana.

Auckland lies on and around an isthmus, less than 2 kilometres wide at its narrowest point, between Mangere Inlet and the Tamaki River. There are two harbours in the Auckland urban area surrounding this isthmus: Waitemata Harbour to the north, which opens east to the Hauraki Gulf, and Manukau Harbour to the south, which opens west to the Tasman Sea.

Bridges span parts of both harbours, notably the Auckland Harbour Bridge crossing the Waitemata Harbour west of the Auckland Central Business District (CBD). The Mangere Bridge and the Upper Harbour Bridge span the upper reaches of the Manukau and Waitemata Harbours, respectively. In earlier times, portage paths crossed the narrowest sections of the isthmus.

Several islands of the Hauraki Gulf are administered as part of Auckland City, though they are not officially part of the Auckland metropolitan area. Parts of Waiheke Island effectively function as Auckland suburbs, while various smaller islands near Auckland are mostly zoned 'recreational open space' or are nature sanctuaries.

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 the Waitemata 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.

The isthmus was first settled around 1350 and was valued for its rich and fertile land. Many pa- (fortified villages) were created, mainly on the volcanic peaks. Ma-ori population in the area is estimated at about 20,000 people before the arrival of Europeans. The subsequent introduction of firearms, which began in Northland, upset the balance of power and led to devastating inter-tribal warfare, causing iwi who lacked the new weapons to seek refuge in areas less exposed to coastal raids. As a result, the region had relatively low numbers of Ma-ori when European settlement of New Zealand began. There is, however, nothing to suggest that this was the result of a deliberate European policy. On 27 January 1832, Joseph Brooks Weller, eldest of the Weller brothers of Otago and Sydney bought land including the sites of the modern cities of Auckland and North Shore and part of Rodney District, for "one large cask of powder" from "Cohi Rangatira".

After the signing of the Treaty of Waitangi in February 1840, the new Governor of New Zealand, William Hobson, chose the area as his new capital, and named it after the George Eden, Earl of Auckland, then Viceroy of India. However, even in 1840 Port Nicholson (later Wellington) was seen as a better choice for an administrative capital because of its proximity to the South Island, which was being settled much more rapidly. At the same time, Auckland was the capital and principal city of the Auckland Province, remaining so until the provincial system was abolished in 1876. Immigration to the new city remained strong, however, even after it lost its status as national capital in 1865.

Becoming a base against the Ma-ori King Movement in the early 1860s and continued road building towards the south into the Waikato enabled Pa-keha- (European New Zealanders) influence to spread from Auckland. Its population also grew fairly rapidly, from 1,500 in 1841 to 12,423 by 1864. The growth occurred similarly to other mercantile-dominated cities, mainly around the port and with problems of overcrowding and pollution.

Trams and railway lines shaped Auckland's rapid expansion in the early first half of the 20th century, but soon afterward the dominance of the motor vehicle emerged and has not abated since; arterial roads and motorways have become both defining and geographically dividing features of the urban landscape. They also allowed further massive expansion that resulted in the growth of associated urban areas like the North Shore (especially after the construction of the Auckland Harbour Bridge), and Manukau City in the south.

A large percentage of Auckland is still dominated by a very suburban style of building, giving the city a very low population density. Although it has no more than a sixth of the population of London, it sprawls over an area almost as large (over 1,000 km2), making some services like public transport costlier than in other, high-density, cities, but also allowing most Aucklanders to live in similar residential houses as the rest of New Zealand, though the section sizes are much smaller than in most of the rest of the country.

Auckland straddles the volcanoes of the Auckland Volcanic Field. The approximately 50 volcanic vents in the field take the form of cones, lakes, lagoons, islands and depressions, and several have produced extensive lava flows. Most of the cones have been partly or completely quarried away. The individual volcanoes are all considered extinct, although the volcanic field itself is merely dormant.

Auckland is home to many cultures. The majority of inhabitants claim European - predominantly British - descent, but substantial Ma-ori, Pacific Islander and Asian communities exist as well. Auckland has the largest Polynesian population of any city in the world and a higher proportion of people of Asian origin than the rest of New Zealand. Ethnic groups from all corners of the world have a presence in Auckland, making it by far the country's most cosmopolitan city.

Auckland is popularly known as the "City of Sails" because the harbour is often dotted with hundreds of yachts.

Many national treasures are displayed at the Auckland Art Gallery, while many other significant cultural artefacts reside at the Auckland War Memorial Museum, the National Maritime Museum, or the Museum of Transport and Technology (MOTAT).

auckland hotels New Zealand

Find a Villa from Across Europe

Grand World Villas - Find a Villa from anywhere in the world

Grand Global Villas - Find Villas from Around the Globe

Planet Villas

An Index with links to almost all our sites

Holiday to - Great places to go on Holiday to
Holiday to 2 - More Great places to go on Holiday to

Holiday to 3 - More places to go on Holiday to

Holiday to 4 - More places to go on Holiday to

Hotel in 2

Hotel in 7

Hotel in 8

Hotel in 9

Hotel in 10

Hotel in 11

Hotel in 12

Hotel in 13

Hotel in 14

Hotel in 15

Hotel in 16

Hotel in 17

Hotel in 18

Hotel in 19

Hotel in 20

Hotel in 21

Hotel in 22

Hotel in 23

Hotel in 24

Hotel in 25

vacation exotic

Holidays in 2

Holidays in 3

Holidays In

vacations

Villas in the Algarve

Ibiza Villas

Villas in Tuscany

Villas in Italy

Orlando Villas

Holiday to Portugal

Gold Coast Accommodation

Condo in Florida

Flights New York

Find a Cottage in Britain or Ireland

Find more Cottages in Britain, Ireland, North America or the world

Hawaii Vacation

Holiday Homes in France

Villas to Rent

Villas with Pools

Cheap Villas

Banks - A page on Financial Affairs