Auckland in 5 days

At 328 metres, the tallest freestanding structure in New Zealand, finished in 1997; its viewing decks see up to 80 km on a clear day.

The waterfront rebuilt for the America's Cup, then a lifting footbridge to Wynyard Quarter, with painted silos and a Sunday market.

A 1929 building in the Domain holding a major Māori and Pacific collection, including a 25-metre war canoe cut from one tōtara.

The highest natural point on the isthmus at 196 metres, with a 50-metre-deep grassy crater and the terraces of a Māori pā on its slopes.

Twelve minutes by ferry to a village of Victorian wooden houses and two volcanoes; Mount Victoria, 87 metres, gives the classic skyline view.

A near-symmetrical 260-metre cone that rose from the sea about six hundred years ago, the youngest volcano in the region, 25 minutes away by ferry.

Forty minutes by ferry to an island of about thirty wineries, mostly syrah and Bordeaux blends, on slopes running down to sandy coves.

Forty kilometres west, beyond the Waitākere Ranges, a black volcanic beach pounded by Tasman Sea surf and split in two by the 101-metre Lion Rock.