Auckland, New Zealand

We’ve ended our trip to the land of the Kiwis with three sunny days in Auckland, New Zealand’s most populous urban area (1.3 million)—located on the narrow isthmus between the Tasman Sea and the Pacific Ocean, it is one of the only cities on earth to have separate harbors on two major bodies of water. It’s been fun to walk the downtown streets, visit Parnell’s numerous galleries, ferry over to Devonport, and troll for unique fashions at the city’s numerous Op shops (Ev has a definite knack for this).

Desiring a few days of R&R to end this sortie, my only design-related activity was to meet with Cathy Veninga, CEO of DINZ, over tapas and some fine Spanish wine (Cathy was my host during last year’s visit, introducing me to many of New Zealand’s finest designers, and contributing greatly to my information-gathering re: the feature piece I wrote earlier this year on visual communication in New Zealand for Communication Arts magazine.

Images, from top: at 328 m in height, Auckland’s Sky Tower is the tallest free-standing structure in the Southern Hemisphere; the CBD from the top of Mt. Eden; the Devonport Ferry terminal building; Ev at Viaduct Harbour.