We started the day by going out to Mission Bay to Kelly Tarleton's Encounter and Underwater 
World. The aquarium is located in old stormwater and sewage holding tanks. A transparent tunnel runs along the center of the aquarium, through which you travel on a conveyor belt, with the fish, including sharks and stingrays, swimming around and above you.
World. The aquarium is located in old stormwater and sewage holding tanks. A transparent tunnel runs along the center of the aquarium, through which you travel on a conveyor belt, with the fish, including sharks and stingrays, swimming around and above you.
The best part, however, was the Antarctic Encounter. This includes a walk through replica of Scott's 1911 Antarctic hut, and a ride on a Snow Cat through a frozen environmen where a colony of King and Gentoo penguins lives. By noon we were ready for lunch so we took the bus back to the downtown area and walked to the Sky Tower. This is the spire that shows up in our pictures of Auckland. It is a complex that has a 24-hour casio, restaurants, bars, cafes, and a hotel. At the top of the spire is a revolving restaurant so we decided to eat lunch there. Lunch was excellent (we both had lamb), and we had a wonderful 360-degree view of Auckland so we were able to take some wonderful pictures.
One can pay money to walk (tethered) around the top of the tower on a metal grated walk, or
you can be hooked to a harness and dropped some 200 meters to land on a target on the sidewalk. We both declined. The observation floor had plexiglass panels in the floor so that you could look down to the street, and the elevator even had a panel in the floor so that you could watch the floors passing below you. If you look closely in the center of the picture at the right, you will see a woman hanging in a harness.
After lunch we stopped at the grocery store and a few stores to pick up some last minute items for the boat. We then returned to the boat to shower and get ready for dinner with Chris and Jamie. They picked us up around 5;30 and we went to Swashbucklers for dinner. It was a lovely evening, and we enjoyed catching up with them.
One can pay money to walk (tethered) around the top of the tower on a metal grated walk, or
you can be hooked to a harness and dropped some 200 meters to land on a target on the sidewalk. We both declined. The observation floor had plexiglass panels in the floor so that you could look down to the street, and the elevator even had a panel in the floor so that you could watch the floors passing below you. If you look closely in the center of the picture at the right, you will see a woman hanging in a harness.After lunch we stopped at the grocery store and a few stores to pick up some last minute items for the boat. We then returned to the boat to shower and get ready for dinner with Chris and Jamie. They picked us up around 5;30 and we went to Swashbucklers for dinner. It was a lovely evening, and we enjoyed catching up with them.
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1 comment:
Linda and Steve,
I am delighted to see that you are back to relaxing and playing tourists. You deserve it after all that hard work! Thanks for keeping your blog going so well. It's very nice for those of us who now have to cruise vicariously:-)
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