Kelly Tarlton's

Since my last weekend was so uneventful and boring, I had made a deal with myself to get out and explore a bit more this weekend. So I got up early, got the chores out of the way, and made my plan. I decided to use my voucher for Kelly Tarlton's Antarctic Encounter Underwater World, and perhaps (if it was a nice day) do a bit of cycling in the area. I packed a rucksack with some supplies (all edible of course), and set off on my journey. The cycle out there was great (it took about 10-15 mins), it was a really nice day, and the cycle path wasn't too busy. When I arrived I was a little aggrieved that there was no special bike-parking area, but managed to find a decent fence to chain it to. Luckily I had brought the old rubbishy bike anyway, so knew it would probably be more trouble than it was worth to attempt to steal it!

The first exhibit in Kelly Tarlton's was about Captain Scott and his failed attempt(s) to be the first man to reach the South Pole. There were a couple of videos to watch, and some interesting exhibitions of how the cabins would have looked, what equipment they would have used on their journey. The most exciting bit for me though was the skeleton of a King Penguin they had placed in the 'scientific laboratory' area.

After the Scott exhibition, I walked through a small corridor and reached a large open-topped tank. It was full of several species of sea fish (trevally, kingfish, kahawai) and a GIANT stingray. The stingray was definitely the star attraction in the tank, and the children loved nothing more than chasing it around and banging on the perspex. I did consider pushing a couple of them in, but managed to stop myself (luckily the shark tank was just around the corner). 

After having a look at the fish, I took a bit of a detour to the penguin enclosure. When I saw it I was quite disappointed as it was very small, and I felt a little sorry for the penguins. I then read that this was a temporary enclosure as they were in the process of 'revamping' the old one, so felt a little happier. There were two types of penguin on display, the King Penguin and the Gentoo Penguin. I was excited to read that the original Gentoo colony was born and raised at Edinburgh Zoo, I have probably met some of their ancestors! The one thing I found really funny about the penguins was that the two types didn't seem to mix together and kept to their separate groups. I thought that they would just mingle with each other, but the two colonies kept themselves to themselves.

After the penguins, I arrived at the rock pool exhibit and had a look at some starfish and some crabs. I then walked down a corridor with a giant squid on display (8.23m long with 5m tentacles - caught by a trawler just off the West Coast of the South Island in 2006), and made my way to the shark tank. The sharks were quite exciting, but very difficult to get a good photo of as they moved so fast!

After the shark exhibit came the tropical tanks. I think this area was my favourite of the whole place. I love the different colours and the magnitude of variety you get with tropical species. The first tank I arrived at had a scorpionfish inside. Apart from being butt-ugly, the scorpionfish family apparently contains some of the most venomous fish in the world. To be honest, after one look at it I wouldn't mess with it!

The next tank had a few hermit crabs inside, which were very willing to pose for photographs, and came right to the front of the tank for me. I also got a good snap of a pufferfish (believed to be the second most poisonous vertebrates in the world), a lionfish and a red-bellied piranha (not all in the same tank of course!).

Next to the fish tanks was another large tank containing an octopus. The display had an 'Olympic' feel to it, as there was a hockey stick, badminton racquet and shuttlecock, and frisbee in there. I didn't see the octopus using any of the equipment though, I was very disappointed. 

The last part of the tour was the Seahorse Kingdom, which I really enjoyed. There were several species on display, and like the hermit crabs, they seemed fairly happy to pose for photographs.

Once I had finished at Kelly Tarlton's I decided to continue on up the coast to St Heliers where I stopped and had my lunch (smoked Kawahai salad - no I didn't steal the fish from the open-topped tank!) in the glorious sunshine. Considering that it is winter/beginning of spring here, the sunshine was lovely and warm, and I sat out in T-shirt and shorts. This is an area I am considering moving to when our lease runs out, so may have all of this to look forward to!

After an hour or so of relaxation I cycled back home and did a bit of work. In the evening I went to a birthday party in Glen Innes, and used the Auckland train system for the first time. I was absolutely stunned - the train was EARLY, left ON TIME, had PLENTY of seating, and was both CHEAPER and QUICKER  (around £3 return) than the bus. After my experiences of UK public transport I have always been reluctant to use the Auckland system, but will definitely be happy to get on the trains here again!