Alexia Russell, Newstalk ZB's breakfast news director, replies to Barry Soper's column on the City of Fails.

 Missing your wife, Barry? Because she has a job in the country's most vibrant city, the one with the fast-paced careers? 

Where, away from the Beehive, there is some perspective in life?  I can only imagine that's where your Auckland bashing spiel came from, probably brewed in a long struggle in from the airport.

 Frankly I'm fed up with this constant vitriol from the rest of the country. 

Aucklanders don't tend to bite back because it's a waste of time engaging.  Imagine if, when we went on our domestic travels, we sniffed into town with our noses in the air and criticised … well, everything.

Why would you? The whole damn country's fabulous, and just because somewhere else has better mountains/rivers/lakes/geysers/sheep/wildlife doesn't mean my town sucks.

 I love Auckland and I'm sick of being laconic about it. I love my job. Stuff happens here – every day. All day. I get to cover it.  Fabulous people live here, lecturing at the country's best university (documented fact), concentrated at the country's best sports institute, toiling at the country's biggest and brightest companies. I get to talk to them.

 My son's school is small but perfectly formed, operates well in a competitive environment and caters for the bright, the average and the struggling equally as well. He gets to choose from sports that don't necessarily have to be rugby … so he plays both hockey, in a huge competition, and curling for crying out loud, a sport in which his school is the North Island champ.

 There's no ice here of course. Because in Auckland, it's tropical. Winter's over in a week and then you're back on the beach. Walking on sand, not rocks. Pick your harbour. There are three. I don't drive to our beach, the tennis club, the cafe, the boutique chocolate shop or the wharf because they're all on my doorstep of my pretty average North Shore suburb.

Next door to me this weekend there's a Chatham Cup semi-final. I might go and watch it then I'll wander off for a walk in the extensive network of bush around here.

 Yes there's a desperation about home buying and I wonder if my children will ever get on the property ladder. That's a problem we do far too much angsting over and it does bore the rest of the country silly, I know that. But there's a reason everyone wants to live here.

 There's so much to do, so many places to go, a vast vista of eateries – I know you haven't nearly tried them all, Barry – free entertainment every weekend, libraries open on a Sunday (phew), cinema complexes everywhere and a great deal of culture. It's just that the place is so big it slides into the background of our lives … in smaller places it leaps to the fore.

 And yes we have problems of size. Things are getting better but Aucklanders – and central government MPs - need to start getting on board.  The City Rail Link is about to see its first sod turned now all planning hurdles for it are cleared. Eventually the plan is to connect the link with a rail line to the airport, which would be a huge improvement. Central government could help with this but steadfastly sees it as an Auckland issue only, in spite of the benefits to national and international travelers. You have their ears Barry, chew them off about some decent, hefty, funding to help accelerate this.

 But come on, stop comparing us to the rest of New Zealand. We're so much bigger, and that's not a boast, it's just a fact. Auckland's a sparkling jewel, and the rest of the world knows it. Just not, it seems, the rest of the country.