Kelly Tarlton's Antarctic Adventure

I suppose in any place, there are things that locals do, and things that tourists do, and some attractions that work for both. In Auckland, Kelly Tarlton's is worthwhile for tourists, but reasonably priced and convenient enough that it also serves the local community well. I mention this because we went on a weekend, and I have to strongly recommend against that.

The place was packed. It was crawling with parents and children and a large group of Japanese tourists, as well as us. There were things about this that made our trip less pleasant.

For one thing, we were happy to learn that there was a free shuttle to Kelly Tarlton's. It's that van with the shark and two penguins on top. Not that big, huh? We were left behind by it twice, first on the way there and then for our return. The attraction was converted from an old water treatment plant, so is very much on the outskirts of town, and not walkable. When the full van passed us by on the way there, we grabbed a taxi. When it happened again after we exited, we took a bus. Nothing tragic, but both times we spent money that we had not planned on spending. I have to say, the van driver was not helpful. The shuttle is hourly, and they do not make extra trips no matter how many people are waiting. This might not have been a problem on a weekday.

We had purchased advance tickets, and when you go in, you are supposed to skip the line and go into the express lane. Unfortunately, both the express lane and the regular lane are handled by the same people, and the regular line is closer to the actual window, so you stand around waiting, realize you will be there forever, and then cut in while feeling very rude, even though it is pretty much what you have to do. Then they take your picture. Again, none of this would have been as bad on a weekday.

This makes the attraction sound like it's not very good, and that's really not the case. They just need to handle their flow better. Once you are in, there are a lot of things that are pretty cool. First of all, there are very few places in the world that have a giant squid on display. It is dead of course, but it is still kind of impressive. You get an idea of it's size, and they removed a section of one tentacle so you can get a closer look at the suckers and the talons that come from them. I would not want to meet one in the water. Fortunately, the odds of that are low.

They have a moving walkway that takes you through a tunnel under a large tank, with sharks and various fish, as well as several smaller tanks with things like piranha, seahorse, and lobster, as well as an octopus that we could actually see. I don't know if that is because they set up the environment better or we just got lucky, because usually when I am at an aquarium, the octopus is hiding really well. I did have the usual problems with aquarium photography, but there are more photos available (pictures 173 to 205 at http://harristravel.shutterfly.com/560). However, I want to spend more time on two things that were special.

So, in addition to the enclosed shark tank with the tunnel, they also have an open ray tank. There are clear, high sides so you can see them and hear them splashing, and maybe sometimes you could even touch them, but part of the tank had been sectioned off, and was being used for turtles.

An injured loggerhead turtle was being rehabilitated there, and was sharing that part of the tank with a green turtle and hawksbill turtle as well. Two of them were definitely being prepared for re-release into the wild, but for a while you could see them up close, and it covered the time we were there.

I love turtles. I don't know what it is, but they just make me happy. So we could watch these, and the loggerhead was quite lively. I know they can stay under for quite a while, but what he was doing was swimming from one side of the tank to the other and sticking his head up at each end. I think he was interested in the people. You'd think with all of that I could have gotten a good photo of his head sticking up, but he was moving too fast, and it was always blurring. Frustrating.

They were fun to watch, and it was worth going, but it also led to a brush with horror. Obviously, they had to capitalize on the turtles, so they had what they called Turtle-topia going on, with games and contests and a focus on children. Again, I am sure that we would have been better off on a weekday, but on this day, in addition to the coloring contest, there was live entertainment for the kids. There was a man on keyboard and a female singer, and this was probably their big break, getting a step up from birthday parties, but oh, the garish, multi-colored cheesiness. I couldn't get good pictures of them either. They were jumping around too much, and I think my camera was rebelling.

I will say they were enthusiastic. Sure, the song "I Love Turtles" may have been adapted from something else (like Elton John did with Candle in the Wind), but I think the song about how to make a baby turtle (no it wasn't dirty, nor at all accurate) and the one about plastic bags were probably written specifically for Turtle-topia, so good on them.

The other feature is really the one we went for. You see, there were many places with Antarctic Adventures or Discovery points on our trip. A lot of Antarctic expeditions depart from Australia and New Zealand, so it makes sense. However, this was the only one with a penguin habitat.

The exhibit is closed off, and you get into a snowcat type vehicle and go around on a track. The light and temperature patterns are set to mimic the seasons at the South Pole, so the colony of King and Gentoo penguins housed there are on the same breeding cycles as the birds in the wild. (When you are walking through the exhibit of Scott's cabin, there are also portholes where you can look in at the birds, but we did not make the most of this because we were trying to escape the mob. Weekend.)

Honestly, the area was a lot smaller than I pictured, but we did get to see both King and Gentoo penguins without going to Antarctica, so that is that. Since the humans are in the vehicles, all the birds see is the car going around, which does not seem to phase them. I thought they seemed a little crowded, but then they do that in the wild, so maybe they like it that way.

One factor that probably leads to the crowding is that to control the temperature while still connected to the rest of the building, they have to have these passageways in between. To keep the customers from getting bored during these steps, they have added some features. On the way in, they put in a tunnel where the wall rotates around you to similate a whiteout. This is quite similar to the avalanche simulation found on the Universal Studios tram ride. There was another parallel.

As we left the penguins behind, exiting that area, I saw another penguin in the new chamber, and was wondering if there was a separate group. Now, although penguins can stand quite still, the nerd in me was puzzled becasue it looked like an Adelie penguin, but it was too big, and they weren't supposed to have Adelie's anyway. Then I saw the seal, and realized I was looking at models because they would never let a seal anywhere near the penguins. Then we went back to Universal, as an animatronic orca rose out of the water with a seal in its jaws. Frankly, it was a bit more impressive than poor old Bruce (Jaws). Then there was some 2-D CDI footage of killer whales, and that was pretty much the end of the ride. Nonetheless, it was fun.

There is one other thing to know. As you are exiting, you are underground, and one arrow points to cars and one to buses. The way you take is actually which side of the road you come up on, and it is not a great road to cross so this is really kind of important. The shuttle bus is with the cars (if you can get on). Buses really just means the coaches that you're on if you are coming with a tour group. If you are going to catch a public transit bus back in to town, you want to be on the car side as well.

http://www.kellytarltons.co.nz/home/page.aspx

Waitangi Treaty Grounds

I already wrote about part of this day, spent in the Bay of Islands, from the road. There is a picture of the boat here, and you can read the account of our time on it at http://sporkful.blogspot.com/2008/10/bay-of-islands.html.

The ride was not great, but it was only part of the trip. First we stopped off at the Waitangi Treaty Grounds.

On the way, they played a video about the history of the area, so I had some background. One downside to being relatively close to a large penal colony is that you are the first logical stop for anyone who escapes or is released. New Zealand started having a problem with lawlessness, and the Maori made a treaty with England to establish law and bring order to the area. The chief donated a flagpole.

One of the tidbits they will tell you is that the original Waitangi treaty is unique in not having sprung from a war. This sounds nice, except much like English-Native American translations, some concepts were understood differently by the two sides, and so conflict arose from it, including the flagpole being chopped down by the Maori multiple times. You can see the current flagpole in the photo with our guide.

I'm afraid she was much more boring than she should have been. When we were looking at the waka (war canoe--that really long boat that I can't fit into a single frame), there was another guide talking to a couple, and he was obviously so much more engaging. Fortunately he offered to jump in and she accepted, and then the history came alive. I suppose the personal connection could have been a factor. His grandfather helped carve the boat, and his father and he had both paddled it (to give you an idea of the size, it can hold 150 people, and requires at least 100 paddling to get it to move). Still, the female guide was a descendent of Abel Tasman, who discovered New Zealand, so she could have felt connected. Maybe he was just more charismatic.

So, your guide can make a big difference; no surprise there.

For the site itself, I have to say I found the house museum boring, although the garden was nice. However, there is a lot of history there, the grounds have a lot of native plants, and you have two great examples of Maori craftmanship. One is the waka, and the other is the marae.

This is the traditional meeting house, and you will find them all over. However, the one at Waitangi was built to bring the different tribes together, so every tribe of the North Island contributed a pair of carvings. The pair face each other, and they are generally husband-wife pairs or father-son pairs.

Apparently there is only one South Island tribe, and they have a different relationship with the North (don't know what that means, it was the girl guide), so instead of a pair of carvings they donated a throne. Still, everyone contributed something.

The Bay itself is okay, but we simply did not fall in love with it the way we did with the South. More on that later.



http://www.waitangi.net.nz/

Maru and Phillip Island

This was our last day in Australia. Really, our last six days were all supposed to be with Adventure Tours, as we went to Kangaroo Island and back, along the Great Ocean Road, being dropped off in Melbourne Wednesday night, picked up in Melbourne on Thursday for the day trip to Phillip Island, and then leaving Friday. I've already wrote about what happened to the Great Ocean Road part of the tour.

One thing I am doing now as I write these is also sending feedback or thank you messages. I just posted reviews for the two Melbourne hotels, and now I need to contact Adventure Tours with my feedback. This is what I will say. They do offer good tours, and the prices are decent. It is not necessarily obvious from the web site how much roughing it is involved, or how active the tours are. The adventure makes it sound like things might be a little dangerous or exhilarating, but they are not. They are grueling.

The itineraries are exactly right for someone who is backpacking and staying in hostels between hikes. Now, if you are going to one place, and doing some exploring there, you might be able to get yourself around cheaper, but when you have several stops in the same general area, having a company that is taking you on the road and arranging your lodging and meals can be a really good thing. Our Kangaroo Island guide, Peter was great. Our Phillip Island guide, Stephen, was not quite as on top of things, but still got the job done, and was a really nice guy.

So really, I only have two complaints. One is the inadequacy of the web site, which was really pretty common for this trip. The other is that they just never picked us up on time. This was bad enough in Adelaide, where we were being chatted up by drunks at 6 in the morning in front of our hotel, but the concierge did keep checking on us, and we knew we were in the right place.

In Melbourne, we were on a street corner that was nowhere near our hotel, and there was no specification for which corner, and it did not look like a place where you would get picked up. Two of the corners were right by strips of grass leading to an underpass, one was by the side of a building that I think was a museum, but am not sure, and the other was by a mostly vacant building. There was no phone near by, and we did not have cell phones there, so as we waited for an hour (they said noon, but be there 15 minutes early, and he came at 12:45), it was really nerve-wracking. Plus, it was clear later that there would have been other stops that would have been closer to where we actually stayed, so I guess when they assigned that, we can add them to the list of people who have no idea where the Albany is.

Honestly, punctuality does not seem to be the most valued trait Down Under, and I don't mind being a little bit casual and laid back, but when you are afraid of being left behind, it's hard to relax. Fortunately, we did get picked up, so that was a help.

Given the chance to do it over, I am not sure I would take this particular tour of Phillip Island, because there is a lot we did not see. The island is most famous for the Penguin Parade, which I highly recommend. Other primary attractions include the Nobbies (some rocks with seals), Churchill Island Heritage Farm, and there is a Koala Conservation Center of which one feature is that you walk along a boardwalk through the trees, so you can look down or across at the koalas instead of up.

We only saw the Parade and the Nobbies, and honestly, you don't get a very good look at the seals. They're too far away. Instead, before leaving the mainland we stopped at another wild animal park, Maru. Maru was not bad at all, but I'm not sure that getting the three-attraction pass for the Island wouldn't have been better.

Maru is small, but they do have a wide variety of animals, especially birds. I have lots of pictures on our Shutterfly site.

I don't know if they do this with everyone, or only tours, but we all had to pass through the photo opportunity, where they took our pictures with a koala. You could not touch the koala, but they did hand you some leaves to feed it. My sisters avoided posing, but I went for it so I could feed the koala, and just never checked out the picture. I did get to feel it pulling the leaves from my hands, so that was kind of cool.

One thing Stephen pointed out was the new babies board, and he showed us an albino kangaroo, which he said was quite rare. I saw the joey, but then he stuck his little head back in before I could grab a photo, and never stuck it back out. I then saw a larger white one, which I thought might be the father, except he was kind of small. When he started trying to climb into the pouch of another kangaroo, I decided that was not right. In the end, I counted at least five white kangaroos. It may be rare in the wild, but it does seem to be a trait that gets passed on pretty easily.

The kangaroos there did not really respond to the chest scratching like at Bonorong, which was a little disappointing. They still took the food, but did not seem to care about the contact much. The emu were more amusing, because they were behind a fairly large fence. They would keep popping their heads up and pecking at the food we would put on the fence, so there was kind of a whack-a-mole vibe going on. I happened to get a shot of two heads up simultaneously, but it was usually one or the other.

There were many koala, but this one just looks so unkempt and seedy, I kept focusing on him. He was like the koala Gary Busey.

We had lunch here, and then drove to the island. It was the weekend of a big motorcycle race, so there were bikes everywhere, which was kind of cool. We did go by the track and see a few practice runs.

As I said, at the Nobbies we did not get a good look at the seals. We wandered around the visitors center, and it was also a rest stop where they offered us biscuits and tea. This was important, because there were a lot of sea gulls around, and you are not supposed to feed them, but they have never agreed to the rule. Anyway, two of the girls on our bus ran afoul of the gulls. One got near a nest, and saw the egg and was interested, but came under attack. Another went to help, but was carrying a biscuit. They had to make a speedy retreat. Now, with the pelican feeding, you would think it would remind me of Finding Nemo, and "Mine! Mine! Mine!", but visually, it reminded me more of The Birds. Suddenly, this moment was very much like the birds.

As you can see, two pictures are not from Maru. The surfer, well, I just thought he was attractive, but also I liked the image of him striding out of the surf. The penguin was the only penguin I could photograph there.

You see, no photography or videography is allowed at the Penguin Parade. The flashes are bad for their eyes, and if you tried just banning flash photography people would keep messing it up, whether intentionally or not. So, if you see a penguin anywhere else on the island, grab a picture then while it is fair game. This little guy was under a boardwalk at one of our stops.

What kind of a penguin is he? For a long time they have been called fairy penguins, but that name has gotten a little controversial. Little penguins and blue penguins also works, but I am afraid that my indecisiveness causes me to think of them as little blue fairy penguins. Big name for a small bird.

I do recommend seeing the parade. It is the number three attraction in Australia, after the Reef and the Rock (see, we got all the big ones). There are bleachers on the beach, and you go before dusk and the park rangers talk to you a bit, and as it gets darker they start coming ashore.

Being small, and vulnerable to predators, as it is time to come ashore they wait near the edge and then start crossing the sand in groups. It's amazing how dramatic it is. You wait and wait, and then you start seeing little groups coming into sight, and they are adorable. One got separated from its raft, and I was just watching and waiting for it to finally clear the little hill and make it safely back. It did. There was also one with a limp, and apparently the rangers do look out for injured birds, so it was probably fine as well.

Little penguins do not go out to see every day, but they do get more active at night regardless, so as you work your way back along the paths you see and hear penguins everywhere--more than you would have expected from the numbers coming ashore. You still can't take pictures, but even though they say no recording, I imagine a sound recorder would be okay, and might be worthwhile. They make a lot of noise.

We happened to be there while the short-tailed shearwaters (mutton birds) were there. These are migratory birds that come from the Aleutian Islands, and there were just thousands of them. That part of the night was really amazing.

When it was over we made our way back to the bus, and Stephen got us pizza for dinner. It was okay, not great, but hey, he dropped us off a block in front of our hotel, so we did not have to spend an hour traveling at midnight, transferring between two trams. No, he had never heard of the Albany or Millswyn street either, but I still had the map, and fortunately, Millswyn connects to a pretty major road.

The next morning we left for New Zealand.

I should mention, although Melbourne was full of disappointments, there was a lot of really beautiful architecture. I didn't really get any photos, and again, I'm not sure I'd go back, but it's worth pointing out.

http://www.penguins.org.au/
http://www.marukoalapark.com.au/
http://harristravel.shutterfly.com/497
http://www.phillipislandcircuit.com.au/