Country Article / Postcards
City of Sails
Date: 08/22/2004The sun's going down...it must be cocktail hour.
I'm sipping a glass of chilled Sauvignon in a cafe-bar on the Viaduct, an upmarket waterfront area in the City of Sails. "A great place to live...a great place to work" read the logos on the city's fluttering green pennants.
Auckland--the electric blue gateway to safe, civilized New Zealand--is as far away as you can get from international trouble spots, and it's often voted one of the world's best lifestyle cities.
Although Auckland isn't the country's capital, with 1.2 million residents it's New Zealand's largest city. To me, it looks to be perfect sailing territory: Three harbors and golden beaches within 10 minutes drive. And spread out before me is Hauraki Gulf, home to dolphins, dozens of islands and more white-sailed yachts than I can count.
Before I left home, I'd heard that New Zealand had become much more expensive in the last year, but it doesn't seem too bad now I'm here: My glass of Sauvignon costs the equivalent of $4.70 (it was $8 in Los Angeles!). An hour on the Internet in a Queen St. cybercafe is $1.25. I'm paying $88 a night for a double in the Airedale, a comfortable 3-star hotel right in the city center. And I've been riding around for free. Running every 10 minutes, the inner city Red Bus makes no charge for delivering you to landmarks such as the Ferry Building on the waterfront and the syringe-shaped Sky Tower which dominates the Auckland skyline.
The average price of a home in Auckland is the equivalent of $145,530. Of course, the average is only a rough guide--Auckland has 50 neighborhoods. At the Viaduct, you'll pay $150,000 for a waterfront studio apartment; one-bedrooms with panoramic views start at $160,000. I don't think you'll find many waterfront apartments across the other side of the Pacific in California for those kind of prices.
Steenie Harvey
Roving Editor, International Living
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