4 Penguins rock

4  Penguins rock

March 13, Monday, was the day we’d go to Kelly Tarlton’s Sea Life Aquarium.  This is the place that has a penguin exhibit … the Penguin Ice Adventure.  That was my main reason for wanting to go to this place.  Yeah, there were sharks and other fish, but the penguins are where it’s at for me. 

The aquarium is located at a tip of land on Okahu Bay, about 5 miles from Aukland.  The place is set under the ground that is their parking lot, and into the side of the cliff.  It's well-hidden as a building.  We walked in and down a concrete pathway. 

 

To get to the penguin exhibit you had to walk through a replica of Captain Robert Falcon Scott's hut in the Antarctic.  The original hut was built in 1911 and still stands today although it is threatened by a constant battering of extreme winds and temperatures.  Scott was one of the first to explore Antarctica extensively by land.  This replica contains authentic memorabilia and offers a glimpse into what it took to survive in that cold, barren land.  It would be similar to ours, but I believe way colder with the coldest temperature they've registered being -89.2 degrees Celsius in July 1983. 

We then walked through a revolving ice tunnel, giving us a taste of Antarctic ice although it wasn't really cold, toward where the penguins were swimming in a tank.  The Antarctic is the coldest and driest of Earth's continents with its ice containing 70 percent of the world's fresh water.

The penguin exhibit was great.  We were at eye level with the little guys both in and out of the swim tank.  There were two varieties, the King and Gentoo.  The King penguin was worth the price of admission.  They’re tall, and very dignified looking with their black and white glistening coats and the touches of gold at their throats and on their heads. 

It was hard to get a good photo through glass, but they are truly magnificent.  And yes, they do have eyes.  It's just very dark.  The King penguin is the second largest penguin.  It can stay under water for up to 9 minutes and produce two young every three years.  The aquarium makes 3-5 tons of fresh snow for the penguins daily, and keep the temperature of their enclosure between -2 and 2 degrees Celsius. 

Penguins naturally huddle together in waddles to keep warm.  However, we didn't see much of that going on. 

 

The Gentoo were shorter and just as cute as could be … waddling along in their black and white tuxedos.  They weigh about 12 pounds, stand about 30 inches tall and can make as many as 450 dives a day foraging for food.  One little penguin kept gathering little balls of ice.  Was she thinking of making a nest? 

This one kept going round, hitting the water and popping up on the other side.  They can swim up to 22 miles-per-hour.  Their stream-lined body is made for it and they're faster than any other diving bird.

At breeding time both parents work to build a circular nest of stones, grass, moss or feathers.  The mother deposits two eggs, and both parents take turns incubating them for more than a month.

The facility also does a lot of rescue work and has helped 248 turtles and seals in the past 12 months.  There seems to be a lot of facilities that do rescues in New Zealand and I like that idea.

We continued our wandering in the facility.  There was a shark I’d never seen or heard of before … an elephant shark.  They’re rather strange looking with a funny snout. 

                                                        

  The elephant shark, like others, has a skeleton made of cartilage.  The females lay two leathery egg cases at a time, each containing one shark.  Their teeth are fused together to form crushing plates for eating shellfish, and they use their noses like a metal detector to search the sea floor for shellfish.

                                        

There was a whole large shark tank with a moving floor to transport people around it.  The tank contained some 11-footers.  They allow people to go in on a dive, and they sit on the bottom and watch the sharks go overhead.  They also allow some snorkel diving in a cage, but it didn’t appeal to me after watching it on a video.  But we had a great time watching the sharks go over our heads as we walked through underneath and beside the shark tank.  There were a lot of different fish in there.  They feed once a day in the morning and do the dives in the afternoon. 

There were also seahorses, an octopus, turtles.  It was a very nice place and well-kept. 

 

This was one of my favorites, a short-tailed stingray.  There were a few quite large ones in the tank.  The ones at this aquarium still have their barbs on but have never used them on the divers.

 

Seahorses were provided with international protection in 2004, but 25 million of the little creatures are still traded every year putting them still at risk.

 

Calamari, anyone?

Then it was time for lunch and we both tried a local fish … terakihi.  It was a mild white fish and excellent. 

We walked along the water for a bit, and out on a long walk way.  It was nice although rather windy.

 

The view across the water was beautiful, and I could spot the Sky Tower, our landmark in trying to get around. 

We drove to some new places again today getting lost, but eventually finding our way without turning on the GPS.  Stef must be getting used to driving on the wrong side of the road.  I’m not hollering, “You’re going to kill me,” or “stay left, stay left,” nearly so often.  It should be interesting if we rent bikes.

We’d only decided to keep the car for five days, but now will keep it until we leave here.  It’s easier and we’re getting comfortable with it.  We’ll be around here Aukland for part of another day and then we’ll head south, looking for birds and other sites. 

Came back to our hotel and walked some more. We walked to the University of Aukland, New Zealand, that has a beautiful clock tower. 

 

A clock tower pulls us in every time.

We even wandered around the campus a bit and into the library where we looked at some old bird magazines.  Classes seemed to be getting out and there were a great number of young people.  We looked a bit out of place but had our story ready … we were visiting professors.

 

There's always something about a library and the smell of books, old and new. 

 

On our way back to the hotel we found a market upstairs.  It seems if it’s a good-sized one it’s either below or above the ground.  Strange, but we’re getting the hang of it.

I seem to be tired here but not really able to sleep.  Don’t know if it’s the change of countries, or maybe I’m walking too much.  We have been walking a lot.  I figure we need to do three walks a day.  And I imagine I’ll get used to it.

We leave our 20^th floor apartment tomorrow.  I’ll miss it … the hustle and bustle of the day, and the beautiful lights from our windows at night.  But we’ll be on to new adventures.  The weather was great today, but even when it wasn’t it’s been a fun time, so far.