Auckland City, The Biggest Town In New Zealand, Is...

Auckland, New Zealand

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Posted:  Monday, August 21
Runner:  Mauro Mongarli

Auckland City, the biggest town in New Zealand, is a good place for runners. You'll never run alone, be sure, at anytime. The only place not so good for running is downtown and the harbour area: traffic - even pedestrian one - is too high! Auckland City lies on an ancient volcano, so don't expect to have too many flat roads. Hills are not too steep (except the one going down to the sea), but one follow another, so you'd better not to start too fast your workout. Do you like parks? Auckland offers the Auckland Domain, near the university buildings, from which you can even start a big walking track across the green parts of the town, until the famous One Tree Hill - check the maps there! In the Auckland Domain there's also the Auckland War Memorial Museum - not just talking about wars, but even about New Zealand culture, and with a very rich Maori section. Summer goes from November till March, and the weather is pleasantly hot, sometimes humid. Consider even the possibility of having sudden storm when not tornadoes (I met one that in Fiji Island made 13 victim: in Auckland it made luckily just one day of great wind and then one of pouring rain). About wind: is very often a companion, and sometimes can be very disturbing. If you're looking for a flat run there, anyway, no problem: you can run on the fantastic waterfront, lots of kilometers not far from downtown where you can easily run often under trees shade and make lots of friends: Kiwis are very friendly and there they go also to picnic, but also skating and rollerskating (so be careful!). From the waterfront lots of hilly road start, so it's a favourite choice for those who likes mixed terrains. On the waterfront there's also the world famous Kelly Tarlton's Aquarium to visit. In the suburbs you can easily find some pieces of forest, the old New Zealand bush, with tough tracks going down in the sea direction. It's not the "Eco-Challenge", but it can be very challenging, sometimes, believe me, and from lots of points it's possible not to see the sun light! If you like running around dawn time, you'll meet lots of people with share your love, and if you like try something new, try the swim/run events ("Stroke & Stride" or "Aquathon" series): there are lots of them for the whole summer, in Auckland and in the surrondings. It's amazing how many people do them: when I raced one we were almost 1000! And it's even more amazing to notice that there's a lot of people that: just do the swim to stay near friends; can't manage to run and power walk the leg course (these races are all 750/1000 meters to swim and 4/5 km to run); are there to picnic with the family and do it just to do something. Races calendar are available by the runner you will meet: it will be a pleasure for them to carry a friend from abroad! Anyway, don't stay just in Auckland City: visit as much New Zealand as you can. Runners are welcome everywhere: isn't New Zealand Arthur Lydyard country?

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