The East Auckland Current (EAUC) was investigated in 1994–95 using data from three CTD surveys (conductivity, temperature, depth) and moored current meters. The strength and position of the EAUC was found to be highly variable with most of the current re‐circulating around an anticyclonic eddy north‐east of North Cape—the North Cape Eddy. The position and intensity of this eddy changed resulting in complex flow patterns with a south‐east flowing EAUC not always present as a contiguous feature. The current meter data showed a high level of mesoscale variability with low spatial coherence, suggesting that the along shore correlation length scale was c. 100 km in this current system. Near North Cape, a persistent but variable counter‐current was found inshore of the EAUC. To the south‐east a permanent anticyclonic East Cape Eddy found north of East Cape appears to dominate the flow field and the genesis of the East Cape Current.