Auckland is the largest city in New Zealand and is located on the Northern end of the North Island. The population of Auckland is around 1.6 Million which is approximately 1/3 of the total population of New Zealand.

Auckland is based around two large harbors and is home to several sailing clubs. Actually, Auckland is known as the “city of sails” and it is unusual to look across the water without seeing several sailboats. There are more than 120 yacht clubs in New Zealand with more than 300,000 members. To say that sailing is popular in New Zealand is a bit of an understatement.

I have always been a fan of big city skylines but two things that I think make for outstanding city skylines are cities that are located on large water bodies of water and that have a defining building. Auckland has both of those. The defining building in the Auckland Skyline is the Sky Tower which was completed in 1997 and stands 1076 ft. tall.

Some cities look better at night than in the day but Auckland has an attractive modern look during the day which can be seen in the following photos.

One of my favorite things to do when I travel to a city that has a great skyline is to relax and watch the city come to life as the sunsets. The following set of photos were taken from Devonport, just a short ferry ride from Auckland’s CBD (central business district). The town of Devonport is a small town that is just far enough away from Auckland to be quiet and calm but still be close enough to enjoy the beauty of the big city skyline.

Of course, the beauty of the sunset is always nice but I like seeing the city buildings transform in the darkness and bring energy to the CBD as the various color lights can be seen better at night than during the day.

Most cities have one great view that is by far better than any other location and the view from Devonport might be that view for Auckland but Auckland has lots of water surrounding it which give many other spots to get really nice city scenes. The photo below is from the Viaduct Basin which is a nice place to enjoy an evening and get the feel of the city.