Ferndale is the fictitious Auckland City

Auckland City

Auckland City was the city and local authority covering the Auckland isthmus and most of the islands of the Hauraki Gulf, in the North Island of New Zealand. On 1 November 2010 it was amalgamated into the wider Auckland Region under the authority of the new Auckland Council...

 suburb in which the TVNZ

Television New Zealand

Television New Zealand, more commonly referred to, and stylized as TVNZ, is a government-owned corporation television network broadcasting in New Zealand and parts of the Pacific. It operates TV1, TV2, TVNZ7, TVNZ Heartland, TVNZ U and new media services....

 soap opera

Soap opera

A soap opera, sometimes called "soap" for short, is an ongoing, episodic work of dramatic fiction presented in serial format on radio or as television programming. The name soap opera stems from the original dramatic serials broadcast on radio that had soap manufacturers, such as Procter & Gamble,...

 Shortland Street

Shortland Street

Shortland Street is a New Zealand prime-time soap opera, first broadcast on Television New Zealand's TV2 on 25 May 1992. It is the country's longest-running drama and soap opera, being broadcast continuously for over 4500 episodes and 19 years, and is one of the most watched television programs in...

takes place.

Location of Ferndale

Ferndale's location has never been disclosed. Early episodes of the show suggested that Ferndale was located in the East Coast Bays area of the North Shore. This was because the show was originally shot in Browns Bay until South Pacific Pictures opened up their new studios in Waitakere in 2000.

Today, various aerial shots of the Greater Auckland Area suggest that the characters live in different areas of Auckland which is so large in area that it's impossible for the show to revolve around a particular area. The hospital's location has never been revealed.

In the first episode for 2011 when the apartment complex recently purchased by Callum and Rachael caught fire it was a Waitakere Fire Brigide Truck that attended the fire.

Ferndale could also be a pseudonym

Pseudonym

A pseudonym is a name that a person assumes for a particular purpose and that differs from his or her original orthonym...

 for Auckland

Auckland

The Auckland metropolitan area , in the North Island of New Zealand, is the largest and most populous urban area in the country with residents, percent of the country's population. Auckland also has the largest Polynesian population of any city in the world...

, as the latter name is rarely used.