Hi Jim
I only know Vancouver as a tourist, but I think you really can compare the two cities.
Where to live in Auckland? That depends on the money and if you have kids. We used to live in South Auckland (Manurewa) because my husband worked at the airport. I can really not recommend southern suburbs of Auckland like Manukau, Manurewa, Onehunga etc. They are the parts with the highest crime rate and are generally rather shabby. There are some pockets with nice houses, but it really is not optimal for kids. If you work in South Auckland I would probably choose eastern Suburbs like Howick. A relatively good option (traffic wise) would also be west Auckland (Blockhouse Bay, Titirangi etc.). All these areas are really nice, but also quite expensive.
Auckland is a traffic nightmare and public transport is not really working. Therefore I would avoid areas in the city centre or even north as you have to travel south every day. We left Auckland about three years ago, but back then it took me 90 min to get from our house in Manurewa to my job in Parnell (about 25 km). I don't expect that this has improved over the last three years.
Cheers and good luck
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