Edines: I like Auckland when I can find it

I'm starting to like Auckland.

Previously, I've had a love-hate relationship with the place, mainly to do with driving around getting lost.

I used to smoke roll-your-own cigarettes and would have several prepared before I drove into Auckland.

I'd have one before the harbour bridge, puff another as I drove over, and suck on one as a relief fag after finally getting to my destination. If I had lived in Auckland, I would have developed lung cancer, I suspect.

I've since given up smoking but I still go to Auckland and have a fine history of getting lost in our country's biggest traffic maze.

Once, en route to Mt Smart, my passenger and I ended up in Otara.

Or there was the time I left Auckland Airport and turned right instead of left. An hour later and I was still trying to work out how to get the hell out of town.

You may have guessed I am not someone who likes stopping and asking for directions. I seem to be genetically predisposed to not doing so. On Tuesday this week, I drove to Auckland for an 8.30am meeting.

I left at 5.30am and arrived in central Auckland at 8.45am.

Normally, that's a two-hour trip, but an hour crawling on the motorway extended it.

I also spent 40 minutes driving around central Auckland that evening, looking for my hotel . The one that was 100m from where I had been parked all day. Taking a slightly linear approach to time and distance calculations, that's about 300 metres an hour.

That's about how fast I travel if I lie face down and drag myself along the ground using only my arms. Yet still, I love Auckland.

I ventured down to the waterfront for the Rugby World Cup to take a look at The Cloud and the giant rugby ball. It was great, despite people fainting outside the ball and the 90-minute-long queue moving at about 300 metres an hour.

This week, I wandered about the Wynyard Quarter, Auckland's newest area of public waterfront, and got stuck on the wrong side of a pedestrian bridge which opens to allow boats through.

It took less than five minutes to open and close, and I would advise you strongly, when Whangareino matter how tempting it is, to not try to cross the bridge after the warning lights and alarm go off.

I was also taken by the simplicity of the design of some of the attractions.

There is an architectural and artistic quality to the steps on the west side of the pedestrian bridge.

The steps drop into the water - you can fish or swim off them, or simply lie or sit on them. They didn't look to be particularly complicated - perhaps it's an idea we could steal for Northland.

We're unlikely to get sued over patent rights.

This weekend, I'm driving to Paihia. If I can find my way out of Kamo.