With our trip to Kelly Tarlton’s Antarctic Adventure and Underwater World and The Auckland Museum. We know what you’re thinking…. “weren’t you guys supposed to play pick-up today?” Well, let’s just say we didn’t quite make it out there. With the weather looking bleak with lots of wind and threatening rain, we decided it wasn’t worth the trip out to get rained and winded out. Never count on a city known for sailing to have good ultimate conditions. Anyway, we hit the town’s museums instead and we’ll play our first pick-up on Thursday in Christchurch.
Kelly Tarlton’s was a really interesting place. We’re sure it doesn’t compare to the Antarctic Museum in Christchurch, (Cara, we promise to check that out while we’re there) but it was a really cool aquarium. We saw sting rays that were enormous…one weighing up to 400 lbs! Next, we took a ride on a conveyer belt in a glass tunnel right through the aquarium. We were able to get a great view of sharks, more rays, and tons of fish. When we arrived on the other side, they had a display called “freaky fish” and they certainly were! We saw one fish swimming in the tank and then it landed on the bottom and started walking! Yes, walking! It has six legs in addition to its fins and gills and everything else. How crazy is that? Of course we also found some “Nemos” (clownfish) too.
We then got on a snowcat ride that took us through the penguin enclosure which was pretty cool. We got to see the penguins up close but missed out on “Fat Boy”, the king of the colony. To make up for it, a giant motorized whale comes out of the water eating a seal lion a la the “Jaws” ride at Universal (or is it MGM, I can’t remember). It was hilarious.
After that it was off to the Auckland Museum where we saw tons of intricate Maori wood carvings and just about anything you could imagine. There was a section about volcanoes since Auckland is essentially the result of a group of volcanoes. That exhibit had a type of simulator room that you could go into and see what it would be like if a huge eruption happened off the coast of Auckland today. It was the kind of stuff that would leave a child scarred for life (and there were at least 5 kids in there watching this while we were there). To keep it short, they sat you down in a fake living room and had a news report about how the volcano is about to explode and everyone is evacuating the city. Meanwhile, out our fake bay window overlooking the harbour, we see a huge black cloud of volcanic ash and lava swallow us up in a matter of seconds. I guess we decided to go down with the ship. Pretty uplifting right? To be fair, there were warnings before we went in saying that “the content could be disturbing to some visitors”, but it was still really strange.
Speaking of strange, outside the museum when we left, we went to a jazz music concert in the park. No, that’s not the strange part. When we got settled down and were listening, Chris remembered that after reading the advertisement for the concert, it said that it would be all songs from the 80’s and 90’s. Well, they weren’t kidding. We never would have thought that you could do a jazz rendition of “Smells Like Teen Spirit” (as made famous by Nirvana), but oh yes, you can (and it actually was pretty good). “High and Dry” (as made famous by Radiohead) didn’t translate quite as well though. Overall, a pretty entertaining show nonetheless.
Glad to see the comments…keep them coming! Hope you’re all doing well at home!
With our trip to Kelly Tarlton’s Antarctic Adventure and Underwater World and The Auckland Museum. We know what you’re thinking…. “weren’t you guys supposed to play pick-up today?” Well, let’s just say we didn’t quite make it out there. With the weather looking bleak with lots of wind and threatening rain, we decided it wasn’t worth the trip out to get rained and winded out. Never count on a city known for sailing to have good ultimate conditions. Anyway, we hit the town’s museums instead and we’ll play our first pick-up on Thursday in 
Kelly Tarlton’s was a really interesting place. We’re sure it doesn’t compare to the 
We then got on a snowcat ride that took us through the penguin enclosure which was pretty cool. We got to see the penguins up close but missed out on “Fat Boy”, the king of the colony. To make up for it, a giant motorized whale comes out of the water eating a seal lion a la the “Jaws” ride at Universal (or is it MGM, I can’t remember). It was hilarious. 
After that it was off to the 
Speaking of strange, outside the museum when we left, we went to a jazz music concert in the park. No, that’s not the strange part. When we got settled down and were listening, Chris remembered that after reading the advertisement for the concert, it said that it would be all songs from the 80’s and 90’s. Well, they weren’t kidding. We never would have thought that you could do a jazz rendition of “Smells Like Teen Spirit” (as made famous by Nirvana), but oh yes, you can (and it actually was pretty good). “High and Dry” (as made famous by Radiohead) didn’t translate quite as well though. Overall, a pretty entertaining show nonetheless.
8 comments:
Can the walking fish climb up out of the tank, sling one of his arms around your shoulder, and pose for pictures? (Ideally, these would be taken by the Afterbite Witch so both of you could be included in the photo.) Because that would be pretty cool.
Glad to hear you survived the volcano-
Those underwater passage things always make me think of Jaws 3-D. Watch out!
Were you at all worried that a volcano would erupt while you were in the volcano exhibit? Then you'd be like, "boy, I'm glad that wasn't real" except you'd open the door to leave and there'd just be lava everywhere. I think you'd be ok, though because, you know, you'd already lived through it once.
We really should put that witch to better use. We'll have to see what her limits are.
Good, I'm glad you didn't forget about the Antarctic Museum in Christchurch. I'm dissapointed that you fell prey to Kelly Tarlton's enticing signs and advertisements. He's got nothing on the Christchurch Antarctic experience.
i've spent the past few months thinking of an awesome comment to post when you finally wrote again. so, here it is. also, i submit that you rename it "hammy from the blog"
Just one note regarding your high interest rate: the Kiwi dollar is not pegged exactly on the $. It's around .75 -.80 on the $ so it's the equivalent to getting ~5.8% (which is still good though). Also, Kiwi's tend to lie about everything by 15% so the rate is really closer to 4.75%. Go USA..and ING!!!
Just one note regarding your high interest rate: the Kiwi dollar is not pegged exactly on the $. It's around .75 -.80 on the $ so it's the equivalent to getting ~5.8% (which is still good though). Also, Kiwi's tend to lie about everything by 15% so the rate is really closer to 4.75%. Go USA..and ING!!!
donde estan los blancos?? it's been sooo long
Post a Comment