Kia ora! Today was our last day in New Zealand. This place is definitely on my list of places to return to, at least just so I can visit the south island as well.
Kelly Tarlton's Sea Life Aquarium
We toured around the different harbors and bays surrounding the city before heading the Kelly Tarlton’s Sea Life Aquarium. We got to see a replica of Captain Robert Falcon Scott’s base camp located in Antarctica and even some emperor penguins. They were massive! The southern most point of New Zealand on the South Island is fairly close to Antarctica, so it’s been a base for many explorers over the years who have headed down that way.
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| Of course they found a fruitcake, they last forever! |
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| An emperor penguin! |
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| Scarlett unintentionally matching a penguin. |
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| There were so many neat fish in the aquarium, like this puffer! |
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| Sea dragons! |
When you first walk in there's even this crazy contraption that looks like a tunnel of ice - but it's rotating. Everything is fine until you walk through it, then everyone starts leaning sideways! It was quite the spectacle to watch everyone try to walk through without leaning.
The aquarium has a lot of really neat features like a touch tank, observation areas, and a handy conveyor belt that lets you move through the tanks slowly and focus on the exhibit. Their main facilities include the Antarctic Ice Adventure, Stingray Bay, Pacific Shark Zone, Southern Oceans Discovery, and of course the Fish Gallery.
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| The touch tank where kids can check out sea stars and other marine animals. |
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| The conveyor belt that runs through some of the stingray and shark exhibits. |
Auckland War Memorial Museum
Next we went to the Auckland War Memorial Museum. This three level building is one of New Zealand's first museums. Unfortunately there wasn’t enough time to see all of the levels, but we made it through the Pacific island and Māori sections on the first floor. There are over 1,000 Māori artifacts in the museum dating back to the beginning of their civilization. Some of the artifacts are entire buildings, like the Hotunui meeting house right in the foyer when you walk in. There is also the Te Toki ā Tāpiri which was the last great war canoe used in battle. It was carved in the 1800s from a giant totara tree and was absolutely stunning!
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| The Auckland War Memorial Museum. |
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| One of the full sized Māori buildings in the museum. This was a storage building meant for food and things of value. |
The second floor had a volcano and earthquake section since there is so much activity under the crust in New Zealand. There was even a demo room where you could experience what a high magnitude earthquake feels like. Unfortunately, we didn't get a chance to check out the war artifacts on the third level since we had to get to the airport.
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| The view flying into the Sydney airport. |
This was a shorter day since we were flying back to Sydney. Probably a good thing since tomorrow will have a lot of walking around the city. We will definitely miss our fabulous bus driver Phillip and guide Samantha!
We’re staying in the central business district in Sydney (aka “CBD” or just downtown to us Americans) at the Travelodge. We’re just a couple streets away from Darling Harbor and a short walk away from the Opera House.
Goodnight from Australia!
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