According to Stats NZ, a record number of NZ citizens, including Auckland residents, left the country long-term in the year to September.
City leaders ranked Auckland second-to-last of seven other cities across the globe, measured for housing affordability and public transport in the State of the City 2024 report.
From its traffic to its large population of Jafas, Tāmaki Makaurau usually is the butt of jokes for Kiwis, including its residents. Does the City of Sails have any redeeming features? Travel journalist Varsha Anjali, a 30-something immigrant Jafa gives her hot take.
It’s 7.10pm and I’min my 21sq m CBD apartment. The cars thudding over the traffic counter on the Auckland Southern Motorway are loud. And annoying. And constant. If the road critters aren’t thudding, they are whooshing. If they aren’t whooshing, they are piercing with sirens. I don’t hear the birds. I hear the man living in the dodgy and unaffordable carpark below, wolf-whistling for an hour - sometimes two - after midnight.
I recently went to Venice on a work trip. Unexpectedly it felt good coming back. Flying back, I mean. There is something unreservedly beautiful about seeing the aerial view of the vast bush of the Waitākere Ranges minutes before the plane lands at the country’s biggest and baddest airport. And there is something crushingly compelling about realising what your parents always wanted you to know. You’ve always been lucky.
My digital aerial view was green. Seventeen hours earlier, flying over Dubai International Airport, brown and grey had swallowed my screen.
I was once an Auckland hater. Like many of my Jafa (a not-so-affectionate acronym for people from Auckland) friends, following years of geographic isolation and a lack of things to do when it rained (and a side of teenage self-centredness) we wanted to leave soon after we graduated from university. So I did.
Briefly, some background: I emigrated from Fiji at age 5. In my 20s, I attempted to move away permanently twice on my own: first with a one-way ticket to South America, returning discontentedly in 2015, then a one-way ticket to the UK, returning contently in 2022.
The city gets a bad rep. Sometimes, deservedly so. Like Hamilton. Other times, you know you have to shrug and accept no place is perfect. What is good for you may not be good for someone else. And what is good for you now may not be good for you tomorrow or in one thousand years.
Some criticism is Auckland-specific: the Jafas and their love for activewear, the ghostly urban nightlife, the lack of community, the traffic, the uncharming architecture.
Other aspects stretch into opinions of New Zealanders and New Zealand living: the tall poppy syndrome, the No. 8 wire folklore, the sensitivity to outsider criticism, the cold and expensive housing (or, as some Europeans call it, “glorified sheds”) - to name a few.
The critique that, perhaps, inflicts the most collateral damage is the vaguest: a question of how Auckland makes one feel. There is a resounding meh from current friends, ‘00s friends, Onehunga dreams, and social media. A Reddit post titled, “Tourist: Is Auckland as bad as it seems?” droned with disillusion:
On Māngere Mountain. Photo / Varsha Anjali
“Wellington felt warm and welcoming to tourists, there were plenty of people, plenty of open space and it was a pleasant centre to walk around in. Auckland has the majority of your people so why does it feel so neglected and leave such a bad impression?”
Hating on Auckland becomes almost a rite of passage. I’m not talking about people born in Auckland, have always lived in Auckland, and rarely leave their bubble even short-term. Or those here out of necessity.
Others seem to revel in complaining. “The city is boring.” Is it because there aren’t three-storey nightclubs like in London? Street music like in Madrid? Tall, shiny ads thrust in your face like in New York? If it sounds like I’m oversimplifying, it’s because I am. There’s a fine line between nuanced critique and the reflection of an individual - it can be both but is often one or the other.
I’m a born-again Aucklander. I’m a member of the small but mighty opposition team. I’m saying the case for Auckland being pretty nice is a compelling one. (No, I don’t own property.)
The reasons may seem romanticised and privileged. It comes after experiencing a little bit of the world, acquiring a job I love, no dependents to worry about, and hitting my 30s - a divine era in which simplicity, peace and quiet are things I consider sexy talk. Perhaps, that is the point.
New Zealand is well-known for its natural beauty. They give the vistas postcards, hymns and paua shells. The closeness and spectrum of it want poetry too. Aucklanders are just minutes away (nothing more than an hour but for most people much, much less) from a beach, a lake, a volcano, a hike through a native forest, a waterfall, marine bioluminescence, wetlands, a spacious park, a place to scrutinise stars.
Each year my appreciation for the Waitākere Ranges grows like the swollen sun.
Green and blue spaces can help heal one’s shattered mental health. A UK Mental Health Foundation report found nearly half of the people in the UK coped better during the Covid pandemic - one of the most challenging periods in recent memory - after accessing nature. I learned this the hard way while living in East London when the world locked down. You don’t appreciate a garden until you can’t have one.
Karekare Falls, 2015. Photo / Varsha Anjali
If you want more you can easily drive to more. You can snowboard at Mt Ruapehu and return to Auckland’s bush and boutiques all within a day. Or for a trip within a three-hour drive, you might prefer a cute farm stay up north, Matakana’s vineyards, hiking in Tāwharanui, beachy sunsets in Coromandel, or chilling at the misty lakes of Rotorua. (It’s crazy/beautiful.)
There’s a benefit to a slow social scene - you can always get parking. For better or for worse, this city still loves its road critters and parking is an important consideration when thinking about where you will work, live, and socialise. Sure, you may have to pay for it at times or find a spot off-street - even then, it’s usually no more than a 10-minute walk. I saw blasphemy in central Rome: cars parked on the corners of curbs at intersections.
If you want culture, good food, good music, it is there. It might not necessarily be within walking distance of home, but so much is there. Auckland’s cafe scene is as good as the UK’s pub scene. The opportunities to see independent cinema, cabaret, cool exhibitions, and plays have come leaps and bounds since I was young - back when it seemed like all the things on at night (three bars and strip clubs) were open on Fridays and Saturdays only. It is all there.
I can cite more pros - like the peace, the good education, the climate, the multicultural demographics - but none of that matters. The only thing that does is that vague question: how does Auckland make you feel?
It’s natural to wonder and wander. Doing so can help mend the Auckland problem. Consider me. I appreciated the city after I had wandered elsewhere. On the other hand, if you already live in Auckland, picture never leaving. Would the city look any different?
