Auckland is where almost every New Zealand trip begins, and it is usually given a night and dismissed. The city itself is spread out and unhurried, but the gulf on its doorstep — islands, volcanoes, vineyards, all a short ferry away — is what makes two or three days here worthwhile rather than one.
Two days is the right minimum: one for the city and its volcanic cones, one for an island in the gulf. A third opens the west coast beaches or the wine region north of the city.
The city is spread across an isthmus between two harbours, and it is not a walking city in the way Wellington or Melbourne are. Distances are real and a car or the ferries do most of the work.
The gulf is the reason to stay. Everything below is under an hour from the centre.
Subtropical and maritime: mild all year, wetter in winter, and never extreme. The seasons are inverted relative to the northern hemisphere.
The most settled weather of the year
Late summer: warm, the sea at its warmest, and more reliable than December or January. The domestic holiday rush is over, so it is quieter and cheaper than the peak.
Late spring, warming and long
Long evenings, comfortable temperatures and the gulf coming into season. Book before the second half of December, when domestic holidays begin.
Autumn: mild, quiet, increasingly wet
Still pleasant and much cheaper, with more rain arriving. Fine for a city-and-islands trip if you can move a day around.
Winter: wet and windy rather than cold
Mild by northern standards but persistently wet, and the ferries are less appealing in rough weather. Cheapest time of year, and the city works fine — the gulf less so.
Two or three days in Auckland is inside the free version. A longer New Zealand route, with the transport between stops, is Premium.
