Auckland is a large metropolitan city in the North Island of New Zealand. It has an urban population of about 1,547,200 (June 2025). It is located in the greater Auckland Region, the area governed by Auckland Council, which includes outlying rural areas and the islands of the Hauraki Gulf, and which has a total population of 1,816,000 as of June 2025. It is the most populous city of New Zealand and the fifth-most populous city in Oceania. The city lies between the Hauraki Gulf to the east, the Hunua Ranges to the south-east, the Manukau Harbour to the south-west, and the Wait?kere Ranges and smaller ranges to the west and north-west. The surrounding hills are covered in rainforest and the landscape is dotted with 53 volcanic centres that make up the Auckland Volcanic Field. The central part of the urban area occupies a narrow isthmus between the Manukau Harbour on the Tasman Sea and the Waitemat? Harbour on the Pacific Ocean. Auckland is one of the few cities in the world to have a harbour on each of two separate major bodies of water. The Auckland isthmus was first settled c.?1350 and was valued for its rich and fertile land. The M?ori population in the area is estimated to have peaked at 20,000 before the arrival of Europeans. After a British colony was established in New Zealand in 1840, William Hobson, then Lieutenant-Governor of New Zealand, chose Auckland as its new capital. Ng?ti Wh?tua ?r?kei made a strategic gift of land to Hobson for the new capital.
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