Where would you buy in Auckland with 1.2m budget?

FHB here. We are a queer couple in our late 30s, and our budget is 1.2m max (but hope we won't need to max it out). We would really love to live in Wellington, but unfortunately our work and families tie us to Auckland for at least the next 5 years. We just started looking, but the suburbs we like (eg. pt chev) are way out of our budget, and we don't feel excited about the suburbs we can afford (sound ungrateful but admit it, Auckland is a bit of a shithole nowadays). We are also thinking about Titirangi and Oratia, but not sure how we feel about the frequent power cuts and floods and slips. We don't plan to have children so school zone isn't an issue for us. But it's very important for us to live somewhere without bigotry and white supremacy in our face. Any advice or recommendations? Thank you in advance. 😊