Auckland 175th anniversary Day

http://www.nzherald.co.nz/opinion/news/article.cfm?c_id=466&objectid=11391715

Auckland's anniversary is not the city's alone, it commemorates the colonial province that spanned the upper North Island from a line drawn through Lake Taupo. Every city and district north of the line is having a holiday today for a reason perhaps even less evident to their residents than it is to Aucklanders.
Nothing especially significant happened at Auckland on the last Monday of January, 1840. The true birth of the settlement was in September that year when emissaries for Governor Hobson reached agreement with the Ngati Whatua of Orakei for the Governor to establish his capital on a wedge of land between Mt Eden and the Waitemata. But the weather is better in January so this was the day later chosen for the provincial holiday.