5 Reasons to Vacation in Auckland, New Zealand

Also called “the City of Sails,” a sprawling metropolis between two harbors (Waitemata and Manukau Harbors), Auckland is located in New Zealand’s North Island. It is a friendly, cosmopolitan city of 1.45 million inhabitants – it has attracted a large concentration of Polynesians from South Pacific islands as well as Asians. New Zealand’s largest city and a popular stop as well as an embarkation/debarkation point on Down Under itineraries, Auckland has much to offer cruise passengers. A good way to get oriented and get around to the city’s attractions is via one of two convenient hop-on/hop-off buses: Soaring Kiwi Tours or the Auckland Explorer. Here are five attraction “musts” in Auckland which my husband Humberto and I have enjoyed during several visits to the city (the most recent one during the 2019 World Cruise of Holland America’s Amsterdam):