We landed at about 5am Auckland time although that was like 9am our time. We got our car and drove to the hotel and crashed for a few hours. Then everyone was feeling good and ready to explore. First up, the aquarium. Which you enter through this room with ice that spins AROUND you. Very nauseating but the boys liked it.
And then came the best part of the whole place. They had a colony of penguins that was HUGE and very, VERY interactive. Like wanted to watch and play with my kids through the glass. It was really cute to see her watching the penguins and then watching and swimming closer to her.
They were very interested in Taylor's new go pro camera on a stick and he got VERY close up pictures.
And even out of the water they wanted to interact with my boys.
Who ate up the attention and tried to get them to eat their maps through the glass.
The colony was huge with close to 100 penguins.
Isla was rightfully enthralled.
And so were we.
And they even had a nesting area.
Complete with penguins sitting on eggs and others sitting on newly hatched chicks- that's one sitting on a little gray baby penguin.
Eventually we had to move one- to the real, but not LIVE giant squid. Which Ethan of course needed a picture of since he did a report for school about giant squid.
And giant sharks- again, thankfully not LIVE.
Pit stop to play in the baby area.
And to touch all the small crabs and fish they'd let them touch.
Ethan was not so interested in this but spent a good while watching the waves slam against the glass wall he was sitting on.
Then we moved on to the shark tank. Miles was so mesmerized he stood and watched for a long time before realizing the middle was a moving walk way and he could just stand and watch. So then he made the loop 3 times.
Pretty cool when you're high enough to touch the glass ceiling.
And next time maybe we'll try their cage diving with sharks- right above all the other aquarium guests.
A great start to our trip!
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