Description: We had a lot more fun at Kelly Tarlton's Aquarium than you would expect for a family of our age group. A lot of the exhibits are really aimed more at little kids, but our teenagers and us parents really enjoyed our visit.
The fun starts with their promotional buses painted to look like sharks, but there is a lot more inside. Kelly Tarlton's is part historical exhibit, part aquarium, part ecological exhibits, and part penguin zoo. The historical part is a re-creation of Robert Scott's Antarctica camp. The replica hut contains artifacts and memorabilia from his exploration as well as displays that tell the story of his race to the South Pole with Amundsen. It was really well done and very educational.
What I called the "ecological exhibit" above has some models of ancient gigantic sea life, and other learning activities that is all aimed at young school or pre-school kids, really. But we had a lot of fun pretending to be eaten by the ancient monster shark and just looking around.
To see the penguins, part of your "Antarctic Encounter", you board a faux snow-trawler vehicle which takes you around a track to see several groups of wonderful penguins. We had no idea what to expect from this before we arrived, and we did have fun with the snowcat ride (again, it is sort of aimed at young children), but overall it was a little disappointing and we would have liked more time to just stand somewhere and watch the penguins.
The aquarium here isn't huge but its contents are top-notch. An open-top glass tank contains giant rays that you get a really close look at, and they have a feeding-time demonstration with them also. The aquarium highlight is the underwater glass tunnel where you get a great perspective of sharks and rays swimming over you. There are also smaller tanks filled with a variety of colorful fish, and a unique exhibit showcasing an assortment of sea horses, which are pretty fascinating creatures.
There are discount coupons widely available for general admission, or they have family and student rates that make it a little more affordable. If you want to spend more, they offer exotic activities such as getting in the water with the sharks, either inside a cage or not.
We happily recommend a visit Kelly Tarlton's in Auckland. There's really something there for all ages. We've seen aquariums before, but this one has a unique mix of exhibits that really made it a fun stop.
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