Kelly Tarlton's
What’s going on, Internet? This weekend was rainy and wet in Auckland so we packed up the kids in the car and headed to Kelly Tarlton’s, Auckland’s local aquarium. I hadn’t been myself since I was a kid, so I was excited to go with the kids. They’ve both been multiple times in their short little lives, and luckily they love revisiting places as often as they can.
Buying tickets online is the way to go. Once we arrived we went straight through after scanning our tickets. The first thing you walk through is old recreations of Scott Hutt and Scott Base from Antarctica, which I would have loved to stick around and read all the info cards for, but the kids “don’t like this part”. Fair enough. The penguins weren’t too far away.
But before you get to see the penguins you have to walk through this ice cave with a violently moving bridge, simulating something to do in Antarctica I guess. My daughter DOES NOT like this part, lol.
Braving the bridge, we got to see the penguins, which the kids love. Kelly Tarlton’s have King Penguins and Gentoo Penguins, and there are so many of them. Auckland Zoo only has half a dozen Little Blue Penguins, so this was fun, looking through the glass at them waddling around on the ice or swimming in their pool.
Past the penguins was an interactive room set up with tablet stations and a huge projector wall. On the tablets you get to colour in sea creatures. Your choices are turtle, fish, and manta ray. Once you’re done you tap “bring to life”, and about ten seconds later your creation appears on the projector screen and swims around with all the other colourful creatures. The kids absolutely loved this, and we spent a good forty minutes here.
Through a tunnel and we’re at the café and indoor playground. I was happy to sit down with a hot chocolate and watch the kids enjoy their snacks before spending thirty minutes on the playground.
Once they’d had enough, it was time to go through the aquarium. You stand on a travellator (you know, a flat escalator) and all the fish, rays, and sharks swim around and above you. We did this twice before carrying on to the rest of the exhibits in the little tanks. Crayfish, kina, eel, seahorses, tropical fish, starfish. We had fun checking them all out before heading to the dreaded gift shop before the exit. Meltdowns ensued, and after a bit of calming down we were able to escape.
The rain had stopped, and we had a nice drive home and pizza for dinner. Yum.
Reply by email, XMPP, send a webmention, or say what's up in the guestbook.
No mentions yet.
