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On our third day in Auckland, in the morning we did what we probably would have or should have done on the first day if by ourselves, we saw a couple of tourist attractions.

Our first stop was Sky City, where you can take an elevator up first to a general level of the Sky Tower and then a second one another nine floors to the top of the 1072 ft tall Sky Tower. They offer both bungee jumping and walking around on a platform at the first level. Since Daryl is not a champion of heights, that was certainly not on the menu. The 360 degree views of the city were phenomenal. In our travels with Tom, we had never got a full look at all the various volcanic hills, bays, marinas, etc. As we were at ground level, so this was an "eye-opener." Everyone poses against the angled windows at the very top, so we did too.

Next, we went to Kelly Tarlton's Sea Life Aquarium. Tarlton was a diver and treasure hunter on sunken ships and an enthusiast of sea life. After some years of work, he opened this aquarium in 1985 by using salvaged sewage tanks placed under the roads and hills along a shoreline in Auckland. He was the first to have plexi-glass bent and formed into tunnels through which people can walk with sharks and other fish and rays moving all around and above them. (We have since seen this at other aquariums, like on Maui.) He installed a moving pathway through these tunnels. He and other divers brought in sharks from the seas around New Zealand to inhabit the tanks. Unfortunately, he died of heart failure at age 47 only 7 weeks after the Aquarium opened, only living long enough to see its initial success.

We spent several hours wandering through the exhibits, all below ground level. Some things, like a number of exhibits about Scott's expedition to Antarctica were more set up. But it was interesting to see that Scott's "huts" included a full printing press, a 9-man scientific team with full labs, a piano, a large dark room and other items depicting the life these men lived, like sealskin clothing, etc. More of interest to us were the live exhibits. There was a large display of both King and Gentoo penguins, with a tank you walked right by at eye-level so you could see them from below. The Gentoo dive up to 475 times a day and are very active. The King are bigger and have more vibrant coloring. As you walk up an incline, you come to the out-of-water area which is home to all of these penguins, especially when they are molting as they can't swim when they shed their waterproof coats. We saw a youngdull colored and fluffy King penguin with its colorful parents, cuddling up to them in a bunch of other adults. They almost pose for the cameras, but then they have probably got used to al of us gawking at them.

As with other museums of this type in NZ, we saw lots of school children and there were a number of interactive exhibits. Their teachers received questions when they entered and had the kids responding throughout the aquarium. After the penguin, we moved on to the smaller sharks and rays which were being fed in their enclosure. The rays actually cuddle right up to the attendant and she places the cut-up squid directly into their mouths. They act just like any hungry pet. Next were the plexi-glass tunnels with the gliding pathway. As we rode around we saw a variety of sharks and more rays and divers who are probably continually vacuuming up fish poop and scraping algae. Following were exhibits on the largest variety of lobster, huge eels (both tanks for these said not to put your hands in the open pools and we would say, with good reason!), a whole room of tanks of different sea horses, then more tanks of colorful fish that were more familiar to former aquarium owners, plus lion fish, and finally a small octopus.

After a nice morning, we headed back to the ship to settle in for the second cruise. This meant loading these photos for Rob and a trip to the laundry for Daryl as the dirty wash drawer seems to fill up on its own.

We headed down to Jacques for dinner, to find that Jacques (assistant manager of all the restaurants and the first maitre-d' when they opened Jacques on Marina) was back in his original position because they had been unable to find a replacement when the guy who was there last cruise went on vacation.