Also, check out a NZ-centric world perspective...
Predominant cultures: European, Maori, Polynesian and Asian. (Auckland has the largest polynesian population of any city in the world.)
Sub-tropical climate. 20 - 30 degrees C in summer, 5 - 15 in winter. [65 - 85F, 40 - 60F] Prone to tropical-like downpours during the summer, otherwise pretty sunny. Nowhere near as windy as some cities I could mention. Check out the current weather here. (For some reason CNN thinks New Zealand is a subset of Australia. Those wacky Americans and their geography.)
Major recreational attractions: beaches, and the Hauraki Gulf for sailing. Lots of parks and stuff, too. Home of One Tree Hill--U2 wrote a song about it. Also home to Eden Park and the Auckland rugby team; for a period in the late eighties and early nineties, the strongest provincial rugby team in the world. The Domain (a big park in central Auckland) is occasionally host to outdoor concerts of classical music, which typically draw crowds of one to three hundred thousand.
In a classic display of mine's-bigger-than-yours, the thrusting and somewhat phallic Auckland Casino Sky Tower was recently constructed in the CBD. It's 6 metres taller than the Eiffel tower, but looks much uglier.
Finally, here are some photos of the place. And here are some more pictures, which I took when I was back for a visit during the summer of 95.
