21 January 2025

One of the disconcerting things about this trip, is when I’d wake up during the night, hear someone else’s breathing in a neighbouring bed, and think it was D.C.

This morning’s plans weren’t finalised last night, other than, as there was a weather warning out for Auckland and the Coromandel Peninsula, and the ferry doesn’t run on Tuesdays, we weren’t going to Tiritiri Matangi.

So, we, me decked out in my waterproof over-trousers and raincoat, decided to catch the bus to SEA LIFE Kelly Tarlton’s Aquarium. For those who don’t know, the former Auckland sewerage holding tanks were converted to an aquarium that you pass through rather than look through. If I remember correctly, the original aquarium was just the acrylic tunnel that you passed through on a conveyor belt system. Now, you also get to see King and Gentoo penguins, stingrays (fins ripple), eagle rays (fins flap like a bird), turtles, seahorses, jellyfish, octopuses (which we didn’t see), and a replica of Scott of the Antarctic’s Hut. (Not the penguin, but the polar explorer.)

Two things we forgot. Me: my AA card (back at the hotel), which would have given me a 30% deduction to the entrance fee – and which I should have remembered because I didn’t have it last time. And Pen, her penguin T-Shirt. (She wore a Thunderbirds one for my benefit.)

Also, I didn’t get many photos of the displays as the lighting was low, I had D.C.’s rather than my camera (as it’s waterproof), and sometimes it’s just as entertaining to watch as click the shutter.

Our first stop was to hurry through so we could catch the penguin talk. This meant we had to miss Scott’s Hut and try not to be sidetracked by anything else of interest. Fortunately, the talk was done by a young lady inside the penguin enclosure.

In order to give the penguins some enrichment, one of the keepers was wandering around with a bubble wand and blowing bubbles for them to enjoy. I was waiting to see if they were going to freeze in the air. Answer: no.

The King Penguins do their full body moult before breeding and were all looking neat and regal. The Gentoos do their moult after breeding, and some were looking a bit motheaten. Especially the juveniles who were losing their downy fluff.

Pen got Scott (her Scott, not Robert Falcon) out of her bag and put him by the window to see the more active penguin’s reaction. One came over to check him out so quickly that he hit a surfboard that was in the ice and fell over. I didn’t see him do it, but did hear the bang.

She also tried this with where they swam underwater, but, with reduced lighting, photos of them checking Scott out were harder to get.

Having seen plenty of penguins, we went back and checked out Scott’s (Robert Falcon) Hut replica. This gives you some insight into the conditions in which the Terra Nova Expedition lived. And includes some of the more “unusual” items they bought with them. A pianola and a printing press, anyone?

After that you had to walk through a representation of whiteout conditions to reach the penguins. You are walking on a perfectly stable, unmoving bridge that is surrounded by a rough, white, tunnel that revolves about you. It’s totally discombobulating, as your mind is telling you that the bridge is moving, not the walls about you. Your natural inclination is to head off to the right as if the bridge is tipping you that way.

Having checked out the penguins again, we continued on to the jellyfish display. They are quite beautiful and fascinating creatures when you’ve got an acrylic barrier between them and you.

Moon Jellyfish

There was a tank filled with ice water, where you were challenged to see how long you could hold your hand inside. Pen managed 30 seconds by swearing (which is supposed to make it easier to withstand pain), I didn’t swear and managed 45 seconds on my third go.

Following this was Turtle Bay which contained a number of rescued turtles (one with only three flippers), eagle rays, and other fish including a puffer fish. This was fascinating to just sit and watch. And we got a talk on the display and its inhabitants by one of the carers.

This was where the café was, but it had pretty much sold out of everything when we got there, so we shared a single chocolate cupcake between us.

After that was the original tunnel aquarium and it was disappointing to see that the conveyor belt wasn’t working. But then we spied a woman with a microphone heading in the opposite direction, so we doubled back. She spoke about the type of fish on display and, when a couple of divers dove in and started feeding the sharks and stingrays, enlarged on this process.

When we’d finished seeing everything (we thought. We missed the octopus), we headed out into what was a very light spit of a shower. We caught the bus back into Custom Street and then walked down to the souvenir shop on Prince’s Wharf, where she bought herself an oven glove, since she hadn’t managed to find one by itself elsewhere.

Following this success, we took the shortcut up Hobson Street and down to the Countdown supermarket. Here, I bought a dish brush, as the ones I buy in Thames all melt as soon as I put them into boiling water to wash the dishes. I also bought some Skyr for breakfast, which I’ve never tried before but is supposed to be similar to yoghurt.

Our other option for something to do today, was to visit the Wētā Workshop Unleashed display in the SkyCity complex. So we figured we’d hunt that out and see if we’d have time to look at it tomorrow morning before we go our separate ways. I took us up to Federal Street through another couple of shortcuts that I’m aware of and managed to inadvertently stumble across it. So now we’re booked in for the tour at 10:10 tomorrow morning. Whilst we were there this afternoon, we had a look around the shop, but there’s nothing Thunderbirds are Go related.

Having offloaded our purchases (Pen = three blocks of Whitaker’s chocolate), and transferred today’s photos from our cameras, we went downstairs for dinner. I had the Stir Fried Tofu with Vegetable & Rice, a Virgin Mojito, and, for dessert, a Cholate Liégeois (Having inadvertently having a coffee one that was made with pure espresso in September, resulting in a sleepless night, I wasn’t going near that one.)

And then it was back upstairs to pack and type up today’s blog.

Today was an interesting one, albeit one tinged with sadness, knowing that we’ll be going our separate ways tomorrow afternoon and that we don’t know when, or even if, we’re going to meet up again.

Steps = 11,048

Kilometres = 7.6