Description of the attraction
Museum-Aquarium "Underwater World of Kelly Tarlton" is located in the suburb of Oakland - Orakei - on the very shore of the Freemans Bay. It was created in 1985 and almost immediately was recognized as an example of technology for creating oceanariums around the world. Almost the entire complex is under water.
"Kelly Tarlton's Underwater World" is a complex of exhibitions of marine life living in an environment as close as possible to their natural habitat. The complex is divided into five thematic exhibitions.
The Antarctic Encounter Center presents visitors to three types of penguins: chinstrap, gentoo and emperor. The restored hut of the polar explorer, discoverer of the South Pole, Robert Scott, is also shown here. You can view this exhibition using a special mini-train (Snowcat), which, having passed through a dark tunnel, brings the viewer to the exhibition. In terms of technological solutions, the center is considered the best in the world.
Stingray Bay is a huge aquarium (350,000 liters of water) that is home to a large number of fish and two species of stingrays. The most prominent inhabitant of the Bay is considered to be a huge stingray named Phoebe. It weighs about 250 kg and has a wingspan of two meters.
The NIWA Interactive Room is designed to entertain young visitors to the center. Here they are taught about the marine life and animals of Antarctica.
"Underwater World" is the longest underwater tunnel in the world (110 m). The walls of the tunnel are made of 7mm thick transparent acrylic. Visitors are moved along the tunnel by a special conveyor belt. More than two thousand marine inhabitants live in two thousand cubic meters of water. The tunnel is divided into two parts. The first is inhabited by sharks, the second - coral fish and schools of the most beautiful blue maomao.
The "Sea Creatures" section consists of a complex of relatively small aquariums, each of which contains one type of sea creatures. There are piranhas, moray eels, seahorses, octopuses, crayfish, poisonous puffer fish and many others.
In the underwater world of Kelly Tarlton, you can swim with sharks and even celebrate a birthday.
