Kelly Tarleton's Aquarium
One of the most kid-friendly, iconic attractions in Auckland is Sea Life Kelly Tarleton’s Aquarium. If you’re just visiting Auckland with kids, I would add this to your to-do list, especially if you need a good indoor activity for some of Auckland’s rainy times. However, I would not plan on spending hours upon hours here. It’s entertaining, but it isn’t perfect.
When pulling into the parking lot, I like to park towards the left hand side, near the exit. Often at the end of our time at the aquarium, I’m carrying whichever kid decided to make a break for it, and I don’t want to carry them to the other side of the parking lot near the entrance. Of course this is dependent on availability of the spots, and there are a lot, but not an infinite supply. Plan strategically if you’re visiting on a holiday or raining weekend.
The entrance takes you down an subterranean ramp. Your phone won’t necessarily work underground, so plan accordingly if you need to download tickets or communicate with outside people. Also, my kids, despite being told a million times, think it is terribly fun and exciting to race down the ramps, screaming at the top of their lungs.
After paying or checking in at the front desk - adult tickets are NZ$39, kids are NZ$27, but usually there are online discounts - let the kids play on the snow mobiles up front. It’s awfully fun to sit in the driver’s seat and pretend to control these huge pieces of machinery! The two snow machines up front can easily take ten minutes to make it past.
The next section - the part about Antarctic exploration - is of absolutely no use to my kids. Maybe when they get older they’ll be fascinated by the petite size of the bunkbeds and all of the gear Antarctic explorers needed to keep warm, but for now, they literally run through the exhibit without even a glance. The kids are moderately interested in the giant squid suspended in liquid (my guess is formaldehyde) at the end of the Antarctic session, but not enough to do more than acknowledge it’s presence and move on.
The photographers will try to stop you to take the obligatory green screen aquarium photo at this point. You’ll have an opportunity to purchase or decline at the end of your visit, just past the gift shop. If you’re into these photos, go for it! If not, don’t feel bad politely declining and moving on to a dizzying, spinning tunnel, which is a bizarre experience.
There is a walkway about 3 feet wide with glass sides that crosses through a large, rotating cylinder, about 8 feet in diameter. Even though your body is simply walking along a bridge, the spinning cylinder tricks the mind and I feel a combination of dizziness and vertigo. It isn’t an altogether unpleasant feeling, but it is very disorienting. And did I mention the cylinder is meant to look like ice? It really gives the impression that you’re about to tumble into some evil super villain’s lair. This spinning ice tunnel is all preparation for the penguin display. I guess it’s supposed to get you in the mood?
The penguin’s are definitely a family favorite. The first part of the exhibit gives a view into a large swimming pool. It is so much fun to watch the birds dive, glide, and swim just inches away! As the hallways turns a corner, the penguin’s land habitat is visible. Each penguin has a series of colored bands on them, and a chart on the wall is the key between band combination and penguin name. It’s a fun game to identify a few birds each visit. At the very end of the exhibit, there’s been a small penguin crèche the past few months as some new baby penguins hatched. I believe the little grey fluffballs have matured and moved into general population, but it was the sweetest thing to watch his two parents watch over him protectively.
The next room may not interest older kids, but younger kids will love to color different fish coloring pages, then scan their creations into a system that projects the fish onto a wall-sized aquarium. I have a confession to make. It took me over ten visits to figure out what this room was all about. Finally, we visited on a busy weekend day, and I saw other families scanning their pictures, then rushing up to the wall to see their personal fish swim across the fish tank. It’s actually pretty cool.
The following room may be my favorite. There’s a cafe with mediocre food and snacks, a large, open pool filled with sea creatures where periodic talks by marine biologists take place (though I wouldn’t plan a visit around these talks. The acoustics are so bad it is difficult to make out anything) and an enclosed, indoor play area. This is the absolute best on a rainy day. The kids get to run around and play with the water table, and adults can get a coffee and talk or check out for a few minutes. It' isn’t going to hold anyone’s attention for too long, but I can usually get about ten minutes of contained activity before we need to move on.
After passing by a feed-the-hungry-animals ball game and a shark video tucked into a corner (both of minimal interest to my kids), you get the main event: the aquarium tunnel. This is a legitimately cool display, straight out of the Jetsons. A moving walkway takes visitors through a large tunnel inside an aquarium, making a huge loop full of sharks, manta rays, fish of all shapes, sizes, and colors, some giant lobsters, and other creatures. Watching the huge sharks glide overhead is awe-inspiring. Despite the warning signs, my kids have been known to simply lay down on the walkway and stare up at the amazing world above.
After circling through the tunnel, there is a small staircase upstairs where eel, pufferfish, and seahorses are on display. I must admit, I haven’t spent much time here because usually one kid or the other has misbehaved and we are on our way out the door.
It is an actual exit-through-the-gift-shop experience at the aquarium. Good luck passing through the shelves of brightly colored stuffed animals and toys because it is a space designed to sell to kids. The final stop is by the photo area, and then a long, blue hallway takes visitors to a stairwell up to ground level and the parking lot.
So what’s my overall impression of the aquarium? Is it worth visiting? Yes - it is definitely worth visiting despite it’s quirks, Jetson-esque aesthetic, and slightly fishy smell. We have an annual pass because it is the perfect place to pop in when I need to get out of the house without a big time commitment on a rainy day. The kids look forward to it, even though we only spend a half hour exploring. When we visited Auckland the first time prior to our move, it was one of the highlights the kids talked about afterwards. I would not, however, plan on spending an entire day here. An hour or two at the most will do it. Then, I would wander down to Mission Bay for lunch. If it’s a clear day, add some beach and playground time!
