Editorial: Quick visit to Auckland from the Bay drives home the reality that paradise is relative

Auckland's urban housing intensification is marring its beauty, writes Mark Story.

So it began when I paid $12 for a pint in a bar as warm as lino.

It was the first healthy bit of perspective gifted during a whirlwind one-night stay in Auckland this week.

To get to the bar you had to walk by inner-city apartments where tenants leave bikes and washing racks on Juliet balconies.

In Auckland the residential and commercial interface uneasily; a 20-storey-high Mexican standoff.

At the base of said high-rise a street sleeper sits as still as driftwood on the bank of a river of suits.

I've never been as homesick in such a short absence. The CBD (to steal a line from Cohen) was as cold as a new razor blade.

An Indian taxi driver, a consummate conversationalist and in taxi terms a perfect stranger, gave another perspective when I asked: "Why did you leave India?"

"Because there was too many people. Because it's corrupt. Because nothing moves without money pushed under a table - even the kids' education. Because I used to bathe three times a day due to the heat and stink. Because people don't acknowledge each other".

Seemingly the price to pay for such a mass of humanity is the lack of it. "That's why I live here [Auckland], it's beautiful."

Paradise is relative. The definition of "gentrified" or "civilised", depends on whether you're standing in Mumbai, Auckland or Hawke's Bay.

On the Dash 8's final descent into a postcard-sunny Napier yesterday a chap sitting next to me from Sydney, a first-time visitor to the Bay, looked out the window and frowned: "Looks like we're landing in a bunch of paddocks".