Auckland enjoys warm, rather dry summers and mild, wet winters. The climate is comfortable all year round. Except in the summer months, when there is a combination of heat and humidity. Snowfall in the winter season is very rare. Winters are mild, although rain is more frequent and intense. Auckland receives an annual rainfall of 1200 mm and about 2,000 annual hours of sunshine. In the hills, rainfall is higher and temperatures are lower. The prevailing winds are south-westerly. The average minimum and maximum temperature in the summer months ranges between 14.00 C to 240 C. In the winter season it ranges between 7.00 C to 200 C.
B) Physical Conditions.
The long and complicated history of Auckland's origins stored in the landforms and rocks of the region. The shape and landforms of the region were formed in just the last few million years and are still being modified today. Auckland is not only the city of sails but also the city of volcanoes. Many of the landforms and soils of Auckland, North Shore and Manukau cities is the product of volcanism in just the last 250 million years. (Cameron, Heyward and Murdoch, 2008).
Auckland is predominantly in a rocky and hilly region of New Zealand. Volcanoes take the form of cones, lakes, lagoons, islands and depressions, and several have produced extensive lava flows. The Auckland Region is built on a platform of greywacke rocks that form many of the islands in the Hauraki Gulf, the Hunua Ranges, and land south of Port Waikato. The Waitakere Ranges in the west are the remains of a large andesitic volcano, and Great Barrier Island was formed by the northern end of the Coromandel Volcanic Zone.
C) Vegetation Types:.
Kauri forests and mixed conifer "broadleaf forests were the natural vegetation over much of the region before it was cleared by Maori, and later by Europeans on a much larger scale. Forests survived in the Waitakere and Hanua ranges, parts of the North Shore, and in small areas elsewhere.
