For what you are seeing is how the Waitemata Harbour gives Auckland an internationally comparative advantage without peer; it is the nursery on which world-leading sailors and technologists have honed their passion and competitiveness.
From developing the first fibreglass 12m yachts to the modern composite hull construction now commonplace in yacht building around the world to the foiling technology, Auckland boat builders and yachties have provided the vision and led the way in world sailing development for at least the last 25 years.
But what about other opportunities we could be exploiting from our pre-eminent marine-centric city environment?
It is a fact that of Auckland's 16,141sq km, 70 per cent is water. Every Aucklander lives within 4km of a water feature.
On Auckland's northern border, Kaipara Harbour alone is the second largest harbour in the southern hemisphere with some 1500km of barely inhabited coastline within the city's boundaries.
Our waterfront diversity includes oceans, bays, inlets, surf beaches and estuaries -- around 3200km of foreshore. There are also some 80 lakes and numerous rivers and streams.
But our city planners appear blind to the urban development and transport opportunities presented by Auckland's marine-dominated environment. Our city of harbours is hardly mentioned in Auckland's 30-year plan (other than in glossy photographs). Why?
Instead, derelict jetties that remain over Auckland today tell a story of the part played by our harbours in pioneer days.
Numerous bays and inlets -- Ngataringa, East Tamaki, Mangere -- have been pushed into the background, become overgrown by mangroves, dumping grounds for rubbish and ignored by urban planners.
If the road network is congested and losing Auckland billions in lost productivity, obviously, the harbours are an alternative 'highway' both for commuters and freight.
If Auckland's point of difference is the (potentially) stunningly beautiful coastline, the three harbours, Hauraki Gulf and the many bays in the upper Waitemata, Manukau and Kaipara harbours -- surely urban development along well-chosen sections of the water's edge offers an exciting, viable option for Auckland's growth.
It would facilitate the commercial viability of a greatly expanded network of ferries, taking pressure off our congested roading network.
Who wouldn't want seaside communities efficiently linked by ferries? Who in South Auckland wouldn't make recreational use of a nearby Tamaki River Wynyard Quarter equivalent on the large area of unused land adjacent to Pakuranga Creek -- if they could get access to it?
At a recent Living by the Waterfront symposium in which Panuku Development hosted a group of overseas city specialists co-ordinated by British OECD urban guru, Greg Clark, a three-tiered challenge was delivered to the planners of Auckland's next phase of waterfront development:
?To think past the central city waterfront, or as Auckland Council's new Planning Chair Chris Darby put it in summing up the symposium -- "to rediscover all our waterfronts and their potential".
?To work out how Auckland's 3200km of water's edge can respond to Auckland's housing and urban development challenges -- "has the Tamaki Edge development fully tapped the potential of improved access to the nearby waterfront?"
?To work through what water transport opportunities Auckland has. Are there areas of foreshore ripe for residential development that might be serviced primarily by ferry services?
Their overall message, politely delivered, was clear: Auckland can do much better to fit its economic and social outcomes to the natural environment advantages it enjoys, especially to exploit its four magnificent harbours and lifestyle opportunities they provide Aucklanders.
If the road network is congested and losing Auckland billions in lost productivity, obviously, the harbours are an alternative "highway" both for commuters and freight.
The strength of ferries is that they operate independently of the road network, so should be part of any tuned-up strategy to reduce congestion. So why isn't this a feature of the Auckland Plan?
Short-term more could be done to improve the ferry system by sweating the existing asset better -- improve the feeder bus system, extend their range and improve ferry wharf car parking.
Longer term, as Auckland's population increases a more creative approach may be needed. A 19th century dream of Auckland pioneers was to build canals linking the three harbours. Their vision included a 1.5km canal from the Manukau to the Tamaki Basin, an option that was supported by legislation until removed in 2010 when Parliament created the single city.
Auckland's urban intensification would have had a different direction, with new communities with front doors facing the water's edge and linked by ferries to central Auckland or Onehunga, in those days a busy coastal and transtasman port town.
And in modern day twists, barge services could take cargo from Auckland's port to the industrial suburbs of South Auckland. Tourists landing at Auckland Airport could be taken by water transport direct to their destinations -- Waiheke, the Upper Waitemata, Whangaparaoa -- even Great Barrier.
"Living by the Water" keynote speaker, Carl Weisbrod, chair of the New York Planning Commission, reminded Auckland that New York's origins as America's commercial capital depended on its connections to the water -- with the competitive point of difference over other US seaboard cities that drove New York's prosperity for 200 years the vision to build the Eire Canal linking the Great Lakes in the west to the Hudson River, opening up the US interior to massive trade and development.
We have yet to see how Auckland Council will convert the investment it made to bring overseas experts to show how Copenhagen, Hamburg, Glasgow and New York have improved "living by the water" in respective cities.
Council's water focus to date has been on tackling worsening environmental issues. But a takeaway from "living by the water" and Darby's closing comments is that a transformational change in our approach to marine and land planning is needed, and for that a mind-set change will be required.
An obvious next step, then, should be that the updated Auckland Plan now being worked on takes seriously that Auckland is a city of harbours, with 3200km of waterfront urban development potential.
Tony Garnier is an Auckland-based business consultant.
