The city's significant tourist attractions include national historic sites, festivals, performing arts, sports activities and a variety of cultural institutions, such as the Auckland War Memorial Museum, the Museum of Transport and Technology, and the Auckland Art Gallery Toi o Tāmaki.

[28][29] The introduction of firearms at the end of the eighteenth century, which began in Northland, upset the balance of power and led to devastating intertribal warfare beginning in 1807, causing iwi who lacked the new weapons to seek refuge in areas less exposed to coastal raids.

[30][31] On 20 March 1840 in the Manukau Harbour area where Ngāti Whātua farmed, paramount chief Apihai Te Kawau signed the Treaty of Waitangi.

Outlying defensive towns were then constructed to the south, stretching in a line from the port village of Onehunga in the west to Howick in the east.

Each of the four settlements had about 800 settlers; the men were fully armed in case of emergency, but spent nearly all their time breaking in the land and establishing roads.

[citation needed] In the early 1860s, Auckland became a base against the Māori King Movement,[40] and the 12,000 Imperial soldiers stationed there led to a strong boost to local commerce.

[41] This, and continued road building towards the south into the Waikato region, enabled Pākehā (European New Zealanders) influence to spread from Auckland.

They also allowed further massive expansion that resulted in the growth of suburban areas such as the North Shore (especially after the construction of the Auckland Harbour Bridge in the late 1950s), and Manukau City in the south.

The CBD covers 433 hectares (1,070 acres) in a triangular area,[48] and is bounded by the Auckland waterfront on the Waitematā Harbour[49] and the inner-city suburbs of Ponsonby, Newton and Parnell.

[48] The central areas of the city are located on the Auckland isthmus, less than two kilometres wide at its narrowest point, between Māngere Inlet and the Tāmaki River.

[67] The city of Auckland straddles the Auckland Volcanic Field, an area which in the past, produced at least 53 small volcanic centres over the last ~193,000 years, represented by a range of surface features including maars (explosion craters), tuff rings, scoria cones, and lava flows.

[79] This event was witnessed by Māori occupants of the area, making it the only eruption within the Auckland Volcanic Field thus far to have been observed by humans.

Initially, the maunga (scoria cones) were occupied and established as pā (fortified settlements) by Māori due to the strategic advantage their elevation provided in controlling resources and key portages between the Waitematā and Manukau harbours.

Following European arrival, many of the maunga were transformed into quarries to supply the growing city with aggregate and building materials, and as a result were severely damaged or entirely destroyed.

Most of the remaining volcanic centres are now preserved within recreational reserves administered by Auckland Council, the Department of Conservation, and the Tūpuna Maunga o Tāmaki Makaurau Authority.

Europeans continue to make up the plurality of the city's population, but no longer constitute a majority after decreasing in proportion from 54.6% to 48.1% between the 2013 and 2018 censuses.

[87][88] At the 2018 Census, in the local board areas of Upper Harbour, Waitematā, Puketāpapa and Howick, overseas-born residents outnumbered those born in New Zealand.

[90] A study from 2016 showed Auckland has the fourth largest foreign-born population in the world, only behind Dubai, Toronto and Brussels, with 39% of its residents born overseas.

The plan aims to free up to 30 percent more land for housing and allows for greater intensification of the existing urban area, creating 422,000 new dwellings in the next 30 years.

[98] Positive aspects of Auckland life are its mild climate, plentiful employment and educational opportunities, as well as numerous leisure facilities.

Meanwhile, traffic problems, the lack of good public transport, and increasing housing costs have been cited by many Aucklanders as among the strongest negative factors of living there,[99] together with crime that has been rising in recent years.

The Auckland Philharmonia is the city and region's resident full-time symphony orchestra, performing its own series of concerts and accompanying opera and ballet.

Prehistoric earthworks and historic fortifications are in several of these parks, including Maungawhau / Mount Eden, North Head and Maungakiekie / One Tree Hill.

[121] Nevertheless, the majority of Aucklanders live in single dwelling housing and are expected to continue to do so, even with most of future urban growth being through intensification.

[126] Auckland has been described as having 'the most extensive range of timbered housing with its classical details and mouldings in the world', many of them built in the Victorian and Edwardian eras.

[94] Research has found that Auckland is set to become even more densely populated in future which could ease the burden by creating higher density housing in the city centre.

[140] The government subsequently announced that a "super city" would be set up with a single mayor by the time of New Zealand's local body elections in 2010.

[143] Twenty councillors comprise the remainder of the Auckland Council governing body, elected from thirteen electoral wards.

[152] As of 2007[update], there are around 50 New Zealand Qualifications Authority (NZQA) certified schools and institutes teaching English in the Auckland area.

[168][independent source needed] Research at Griffith University has indicated that from the 1950s to the 1980s, Auckland engaged in some of the most pro-automobile transport policies anywhere in the world.