Auckland is a city in the North Island of New Zealand. The most populous urban area in the country,  it is located in the Auckland Region—the area governed by Auckland Council—which includes outlying rural areas and the islands of the Hauraki Gulf, resulting in a total population of 1,618,400. Auckland is a diverse, multicultural and cosmopolitan city, home to the largest Polynesian population in the world. The M?ori-language name for Auckland is T?maki Makaurau, meaning "T?maki desired by many", in reference to the desirability of its natural resources and geography.

It was established in 1840 by Governor William Hobson as the capital of the colonial government and was named for George Eden, Earl of Auckland, British first lord of the Admiralty and later governor-general of India. The most-extensive urban area in New Zealand, Auckland also has the country’s greatest concentration of indigenous Maori and has large numbers of Polynesians from other islands in the South Pacific.

• Auckland is frequently ranked within the world’s top 20 most “liveable cities.”
   
• The city centre comprises 433 hectares that closely correspond to Statistics NZ’s Census unit areas; Auckland Central West, Auckland Central East & Auckland Harbourside.
   
• Auckland City Centre represents New Zealand’s highest population density at approximately 12,000 people per Km². The densest SA2 (Hobson Ridge Central) has 91,000 per Km².
   
• The average daily maximum temperature is 23.7 °C (74.7 °F) in February and 14.7 °C (58.5 °F) in July. The absolute maximum recorded temperature is 34.4 °C (93.9 °F) on 12 February 2009, while the absolute minimum is ?3.9 °C (25.0 °F), although there is also an unofficial low of ?5.7 °C (21.7 °F) recorded at Riverhead Forest in June 1936.
   
• Although Auckland city center comprises only 0.8 percent of the overall area of Auckland, it contributes 7.4% of NZ and 20% of Auckland GDP. City Centre GDP  was $16B (2016).
   
• There are over 50 volcanoes in the city of Auckland but these volcanoes are not expected to erupt again in this area. The volcanoes originated from a magma source which is located 100-kilometers under the city and has provided the city with some truly remarkable landscapes.
   
• Auckland has the largest Polynesian population in the whole world.
   
• Auckland boasts one of the tallest man-made structures in the Southern Hemisphere. Standing at 328 meters tall, on the corner of Victoria and Federal Streets, the Sky Tower offers crystal-clear views of Auckland for 80 kilometers in every direction. The tower is the tallest man-made structure in New Zealand and among the tallest in the Southern Hemisphere. Enjoy dinner with a view in one of the tower’s sleek restaurants including The Sugar Club and Orbit Dining.
   
• The outer lanes on the Harbour Bridge were not part of the original structure. Japanese engineers invented a way to clip them on when the bridge needed widening. Some refer to the lanes as the "Nippon Clip ons"

Auckland City Council was the local government authority for Auckland City, New Zealand, from 1871 to 1 November 2010, when it and Auckland's six other city and district councils were amalgamated to form the Auckland Council. It was an elected body representing the 404,658 residents (2006 census) of the city, which included some of the Hauraki Gulf islands, such as Waiheke Island and Great Barrier Island. It was chaired by the Mayor of Auckland City. 
 

Auckland is New Zealand's economic powerhouse, contributing 38% of the nation's GDP – an innovative, globally connected city in a country ranked first in the world for ease of doing business. Auckland is the major economic and financial center of New Zealand. It has an advanced market economy with strengths in finance, commerce, and tourism. Most major international corporations have an Auckland office; the most expensive office space is around lower Queen Street and the Viaduct Basin in the Auckland CBD, where many financial and business services are located, which make up a large percentage of the CBD economy. The largest commercial and industrial areas of the Auckland Region are Auckland CBD and the western parts of Manukau, mostly bordering the Manukau Harbour and the Tamaki River estuary. Auckland is classified by the Globalization and World Cities Research Network as a Beta + world city because of its importance in commerce, the arts, and education.

Auckland's infrastructure needs to keep up with the pace and scale of growth. Investment in infrastructure has long-term consequences for Auckland's future and will shape how well it functions for future generations.

The population and economic growth expected in Auckland over the next 30 years presents a number of infrastructure-related challenges and opportunities, including:

coordinating investment and planning to enable growth
improving the performance of Auckland's infrastructure
creating resilient infrastructure networks.
Significant investment by the central government, council and the private sector is needed to respond to these challenges. It is crucial that this investment is coordinated and aligned with growth, in order to minimize the costs of under-used assets, increase Auckland's productivity and achieve better environmental outcomes. If not managed carefully, the size of infrastructure investment required may have significant financial implications for infrastructure providers. Ensuring that infrastructure networks have sufficient capacity to service growth is critical. The sequencing of future urban and development areas influences the timing of investment in the strategic networks needed to service these areas.  Further investment in local infrastructure will be needed as these areas grow. This will require alignment between the expansion of strategic water and transport networks, and investment in local infrastructure, particularly to service development areas and future urban areas.