Auckland

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History

The Auckland isthmus was settled by Māori around 1350, and was valued for its rich and fertile land. Many pā (fortified villages) were built, mainly on the volcanic peaks. By the early 1700s, Te Waiohua, a confederation of tribes such as Ngā Oho, Ngā Riki and Ngā Iwi, was the main tribal group on the Auckland isthmus, with major pā at Maungakiekie / One Tree Hill, Māngere Mountain and Maungataketake. The confederation came to an end around 1741 when paramount chief Kiwi Tāmaki was killed in battle by Te Waha-akiaki, a chief of the Ngāti Whātua hapū Te Taoū. From the 1740s, Ngāti Whātua Ōrākei were the main tribe on the Auckland isthmus. The introduction of firearms at the end of the eighteenth century, which began in Northland, upset the balance of power and led to devastating intertribal warfare beginning in 1807, 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 Māori when settlement by European New Zealanders began. On 20 March 1840 in the Manukau Harbour area where Ngāti Whātua farmed, paramount chief Apihai Te Kawau signed the Treaty of Waitangi. Ngāti Whātua sought British protection from Ngāpuhi as well as a reciprocal relationship with the Crown and the Church. Soon after signing the treaty, Ngāti Whātua Ōrākei made a strategic gift of of land on the Waitematā Harbour to the new Governor of New Zealand, William Hobson, for the new capital, which Hobson named for George Eden, Earl of Auckland, then Viceroy of India. Auckland was founded on 18 September 1840 and was officially declared New Zealand's capital in 1841, and the transfer of the administration from Russell (now Old Russell) in the Bay of Islands was completed in 1842. However, even in 1840 Port Nicholson…

Geography

The boundaries of Auckland are imprecisely defined. The Auckland urban area, as it is defined by Statistics New Zealand under the Statistical Standard for Geographic Areas 2018 (SSGA18), spans and extends to Long Bay in the north, Swanson in the north-west, and Runciman in the south. Auckland forms New Zealand's largest urban area. The Auckland urban area lies within the Auckland Region, an administrative region that takes its name from the city. The region encompasses the city centre, as well as suburbs, surrounding towns, nearshore islands, and rural areas north and south of the urban area. The Auckland central business district is the most built-up area of the region. The CBD covers in a triangular area, and is bounded by the Auckland waterfront on the Waitematā Harbour and the inner-city suburbs of Ponsonby, Newton and Parnell. Several islands of the Hauraki Gulf are administered as part of the Auckland Region, though they are not part of the Auckland urban 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. Under the Köppen climate classification, Auckland has an oceanic climate (Köppen climate classification Cfb). However, under the Trewartha climate classification and according to the National Institute of Water and Atmospheric Research (NIWA), the city's climate is classified as humid subtropical climate with warm summers and mild winters (Trewartha climate classification Cfbl). It is the warmest main centre of New Zealand. Snowfall is extremely rare: the most significant fall since the start of the 20th century was on 27 July 1939, when snow fell just before dawn and of snow reportedly lay on Mount Eden. Snowflakes were…

Most-observed species

• House Sparrow

  Passer domesticus (Linnaeus, 1758) · Aves
  18,958
• Eurasian Blackbird

  Turdus merula Linnaeus, 1758 · Aves
  17,596
• Tui

  Prosthemadera novaeseelandiae (J.F.Gmelin, 1788) · Aves
  15,582
• Common Myna

  Acridotheres tristis (Linnaeus, 1766) · Aves
  14,208
• Kelp Gull

  Larus dominicanus M.H.K.Lichtenstein, 1823 · Aves
  12,231
• Silver-eye

  Zosterops lateralis (Latham, 1802) · Aves
  11,435
• Welcome Swallow

  Hirundo neoxena Gould, 1842 · Aves
  11,154
• European Starling

  Sturnus vulgaris Linnaeus, 1758 · Aves
  10,569

Most recent

• M 2.9 — 2011-07-01
  5 km NNW of Tamaki, New Zealand
• M 4 — 2007-03-13
  26 km NNW of Coromandel, New Zealand
• M 3.8 — 2007-02-21
  31 km NE of Murrays Bay, New Zealand
• M 4.5 — 2007-02-21
  30 km NE of Murrays Bay, New Zealand