We're going up to the top of Mount Eden. It is one of the 50 cones in the Auckland volcanic field.
I think they're great things for cyclists, actually. Kind of like little hipster boutique mountains.
What we're looking at here is the Waitemata Harbour, going out to the Hauraki Gulf.
You can see around Rangitoto Island, which is a volcanic island that erupted within human memory.
The harbor and the gulf themselves are just beautiful stretches of water.
What you can see here is the central business district.
This is a kumara pit, where kumara, which are a form of sweet potato brought to the country by the original Maori migrants
-- a very important staple food-- and they were stored and covered in pits.
The delightful thing about being up here is the 360-degree view of the Auckland Isthmus.
There are, you know, there are many vantage points in Auckland, but I think this really is the one.
We're... right now we're at the Auckland Viaduct.
Beautiful sunny day, and we're just about to head out to Waiheke. So we're gonna catch the ferry over there.
We've got Auckland City back here. This is the ferry building.
And as soon as the ferry starts taking off we'll get to see [an] awesome view of Auckland City.
Probably most New Zealanders have been out to Waiheke before.
From Auckland it's only a 45-minute trip on the ferry. And there's lots of vineyards and wineries there, lots of good places to eat.
I mean, my friends come over about every year,
once a year, and we hire bikes, and we bike around to all the wineries. So, it's lots of fun.
This is the Otara Market. It's been here since the '70s.
It kind of started as a community initiative, but it's kind of since picked up
and Saturday morning this car park turns into this thriving sea of cheap socks, fresh vegetables and fatty food.
Well, we're on one of Auckland's many really great city beaches.
You know, this is, this city is all about coastline, and the Waitemata Harbour and the islands off it. And so this is Takapuna Beach, on Auckland's north shore.
It's one of my favorite beaches in the city because it's big and it's calm and the water's just, you know, always flat,
and you get the beautiful trees that give you the shade.
And you get the outlook onto some of the many islands in the gulf.
Very laid-back, kind of almost a nostalgic vibe to it
because it's so un-touristy and so sort of just sweet and sort of old-fashioned in a way, which is what I love about it.
Right now we are in Auckland City, down by the waterfront in a complex called Britomart.
It was named after HMS Britomart, which was a Royal Navy ship.
In 1860, this whole area was actually a port with shipping and the naval fleet based here.
And now it's been developed into a bit of a hub of activity, a shopping and eating and drinking Mecca.
It's just something entirely its own self now. And people are gravitating towards the waterfront.
So we're in the wonderful, vibey Tyler Street Garage, or Garage.
As you can see, it used to be, it also used to be a car park, and a garage before that.
And it's been converted and has a bit of a wonderful, New York, industrial chic vibe to it.
And upstairs is a wonderful, wonderful little deck with a view of the working port outside.
One interesting thing about New Zealand is that there is such a... such an array of cultures.
You know, there's a lot of authentic stuff here. You can just smell it. You can feel it. You can taste it.