Auckland
Alone

SAMPLE

Why Auckland

Auckland sits on an isthmus so narrow that in places you can walk from one harbor to the other in twenty minutes. To the east, the Waitematā opens onto the Hauraki Gulf, scattered with islands and full of moving sails on any decent afternoon. To the west, the Manukau reaches out toward the Tasman Sea, wider, rougher, and mostly ignored by visitors who never get past the eastern side. Between the two, the city rises and falls over the low green cones of some fifty dormant volcanoes, each one a public park now, each one worth climbing for the view alone.

Auckland is a city built across water and over volcanoes, and the way to understand it is by ferry and on foot, not by ticking off downtown sights in an afternoon. The Waitematā is not scenery here. It is infrastructure, commute and recreation at once, and a visitor who stays on land sees only part of the place.

A free excerpt from Auckland Alone.